Inflation-beating pay rise must be front and centre of any new public sector deal

Private sector workers must also organise to defend living standards

Trade union Unite, which represents public sector workers in a range of workplaces, has said that today’s strong and united picket lines demonstrate the determination of workers to defend their living standards going forward.

Speaking from the picket line at Trinity College Dublin, the union’s Irish Secretary Susan Fitzgerald warned the government against attempting to short-change workers in any talks on a new public sector deal:

“Today’s massive mobilisation of public sector workers across Ireland demonstrates that workers have real power and are not prepared to accept more of the same. The government’s arrogant failure since June to meaningfully engage moved the negotiating table to the picket line.

“The government needs to jettison its business-as-usual approach to industrial relations, listen to workers, and come forward with a real cost-of-living proposal that will not only make up the ground already lost but protect living standards going forward.

“The softening in the government’s tone since last night was not due to a sudden conversion – it was due to a belated realisation of the power wielded by organised public sector workers.”

Pointing to the overwhelming public support for today’s action, Susan Fitzgerald said that private sector workers are facing the same cost-of-living challenges as workers in the public sector:

“Whether public or private sector, the cost-of-living crisis means workers are facing the winter with oil tanks that won’t get filled and shrinking shopping baskets.

“Private sector workers will be looking at the picket lines up and down the country today and drawing a very clear lesson – there is power in organised workers standing together in a union to defend their living standards.”