Workers Solidarity Movement

The INTO Vote No Campaign today launched a new, updated version of the leaflet calling on members of the union to reject the Public Sector deal. This leaflet will be distributed throughout the country at INTO information meetings and in school staffrooms in the coming weeks in advance of the ballot of members which takes place during May (closing date 21st May).

Michael Taft has provided a useful quick review of the ESRI Quaterly commentary and the contradictions with government claims over at his Notes on the Front blog.  He says this points at a "joyless an jobless" recovery

With the National Executive of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation coming out unanimously against the Public Service deal and the NEC of SIPTU advocating a yes vote, the battle lines are well and truly drawn.  The next few weeks will see an intense debate in the trade union movement on this deal, and the threats of what will happen to us if we don't comply are already coming thick and heavy from government ministers such as Mary Harney and Brian Lenihan.

This text is currently being distributed in leaflet form by the Vote No to the Public Sector Agreement campaign within the Irish National Teachers Organisation. As well as arguing why the agreement is bad for education workers in the public sector it also explains why it is also bad for other public sector workers.  If you want to distribute the leaflet you'll find a link to a PDF of it at the bottom of the text.

In a major setback for the government the executive of Impact, the country’s largest public sector union has rejected the deal which was negotiated last week.

Providence Resources the energy exploration company owned by the multi millionare O'Reilly family has announced that it is to start drilling for oil only 10km to sea from the city of Dublin.  If it does hit oil then like all the other energy exploration companies it will not have to pay one cent in royalities thanks to the Great Oil & Gas Giveaway deal created by Minister Ray Burke (subsequently jailed for corruption) and Bertie Ahern among others.  The O'Reilly family also own a huge percentage of the Irish media, the same media that has failed to cover this Great Oil & Gas Giveaway and that in the case of the Sunday Independant in particular has actively attacked the few journalists like Fintan O'Toole that have dared to speak out.

Following the vote by the Central Executive Committee of the country's largest public sector union, IMPACT, that they cannot recommend acceptance of the public sector deal in the forthcoming ballot of members, the deal is under huge pressure.  IMPACT's outgoing general secretary Peter McLoone has been one of the principal advocates of the deal and the failure of his union's executive to back the deal will have serious ramifications not alone within IMPACT but in other public sector unions as well.

INTO Conference has again had a narrow vote in relation to the Public Sector deal. After another lively and angry debate, Delegates voted by 306 votes to 248 against a section of a motion which would have had the effect of postponing the ballot on the deal until the full details of any revised teachers contract were made available.

In what is being described by RTE as a blow to the leadership, delegates at the INTO annual Congress in Galway today (Tuesday) passed a motion which declared that the Public Sector Agreement 2010 -2014  is contrary to INTO policy.  After a lively debate, it was agreed to endorse the union leadership's decision to put the deal to a ballot of the membership but the section of the motion which called for a recommendation that members reject the deal in that ballot was defeated by just 4 votes - 308 to 304.

The conference of the Irish National Teachers Organisation conference has split down the middle on the question of whether to accept or reject the Public Sector Agreement negotiated by the trade union bosses.  Delegates voted 304 for and 308 against an amendment which would have meant the rejection of the deal.  Delegates who oppose the deal are now meeting up to start the organisation of a No campaign in the INTO.