Plan of action with no action 

The Independent Workers’ Union is a trade union that has for long been outside the Irish Congress of Trade Unions because we felt that the political landscape that trade unions bought into in the 1980s was detrimental to the cause of the working class.

The action plan, recently published Ireland’s Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining 2026 – 2030 and subsequently positively commented on by Kevin Callinan (Trade unions and Government must build on EU’s wage directive for a better future for workers) has not been the subject of any serious debate in trade union branches or circles. 

The report opens with welcoming the “settled industrial relations environment” in reference to the ‘Programme for National Recovery’, which was a centralised approach to wage agreements; in short unofficial no strike agreements in exchange for modest and often below inflation wage increases.  The tone of this report positively reflects on the idea that ‘responsible’ social partners such as trade unions can come to terms with the government and employers and work together in an amicable and non-contradictory way. 

The tone of this report also presents the EU and its directives as socially responsible and positive. The IWU rejects the idea that workers rights will be advanced by the EU, An institution which has inflicted savage austerity on the European Working class, which has promoted endless conflicts and regime change around the globe to satisfy their economic interests and which is currently accelerating the war economy in step with NATO, Britain and the USA

We ask if it is at all plausible that any trade unionist can sincerely believe that placing our faith and trust in the institutions of the EU is in any way wise instead of investing in the rank and file membership of our own trade unions. Surely the immense resources that the trade union has could make significant inroads in rebalancing the power relations in places of employment through aggressive and member led union campaigns?

The report talks of a social contract between the organised representative of the working class trade unions and employers, incl. Government, but in Ireland the social contract has long been broken as the country faces crises in health, housing and education – so how can any trade unionist accept at face value the supposed desire of employers and government to suddenly have respect for trade unionists and their unions of choice? 

The consultant tone of the report hammers home this image of ‘responsible stakeholders’ that are simply doing the best they can in the national interest of economic development and of workers rights. This idea and tone re-affirms the untrue assertion that trickle-down economics under neoliberalism is an acceptable form of allocating and distributing wealth among workers in the many highly profitable industries in Ireland.  

In the absence of a trade union organising strategy that addresses the sharp decline in union membership, this report is a trojan horse for the trade union movement designed to co-opt what is left of the independence of the union movement and ensure the trade union movement does not obstruct the road to miltiarisation and austerity.

Here are a number of points that we believe should be of extreme concern to all trade union members:: 

1. The overarching theme of the report concentrates on strengthening the industrial relations machinery (Workplace Relations Commission & Labour Court) while respecting the voluntarist system of industrial relations and somehow adhering to the EU Directive. The voluntarist system in Ireland benefits the employer class and allows them to remain disengaged from recognising or engaging with the trade unions that their workers choose.  Our union and members regularly receive notification that the employer will not engage. The voluntarist system benefits employers and ensures that the constitutional right to freedom of association is redundant in practice. 

2. The report regurgitates the idea that social partnership and industrial peace are net positives for society – but a quick look at the many crises facing trade union members and non-trade union members as well as the collapsed union density suggests this to be the opposite. While there is industrial peace for the employer class, there is inequality, union busting and a cost of living crisis for the working class.

3. The report sells days ‘saved from industrial action’ as a net positive for society which further re-affirms the pro-employer and pro-government line of the action plan. Industrial action, and particularly strike action, has always been the strongest tool workers have and we would argue that the complete decline in days lost to industrial action directly reflects on the strength and militancy of the trade union movement e.g. it has significantly declined. 

4. This decline in the workers movement has resulted in its inability to leverage itself in the face of the financial crisis, the growing military jingoism from the government, solidarity with the people of Palestine, the dual crises in health and housing and many other issues that every single worker is facing the brunt of when they clock off and go home. 

5. The report indicates several points of concern, but in particular Point 14 which talks of the feasibility of introducing statutory mechanisms of mandatory mediation process between notification and industrial action. Our interpretation of this proposal is that it will further strengthen the no strike wage agreements that ICTU unions make with government and employers and once more weaken the power of trade unionists and workers.

6. The report uses a monitoring framework and example metric to determine the proceeding of the action plan. Improving collective bargaining is one of the objectives and the metric is ‘national collective bargaining’ metrics. The IWU has studied some of the collective bargaining agreements written into workers contracts of employment. Our view is that the agreements are terrible for workers power and are effectively no strings attached no strike agreements with some of the worst employers in the country.  While on principle we accept that collective bargaining is a net positive, we must sincerely question the substance of collective bargaining agreements struck by ICTU unions if they fundamentally undermine and neuter workers’ abilities to take strike action. 

7. The monitoring framework further frames the reduction in industrial action and ‘days saved due to reduction in industrial action’ as metrics in implementing the collective bargaining plan.  The report does not frame higher quality of life for workers, or improved workplace democracy or a cessation of union busting – but simply the reduction in days of industrial action. To us this is the ICTU’s representative subscribing to a non-existent social contract that the employer class and government have never upheld and have no intention of upholding, thereby giving thousands of trade unionists around the country the false impression that the government and the employers are honest brokers. 

These 7 points outline the concerns of our union with this shallow and insufficient action plan. Misplaced faith in the institutions of the EU and the supposed good faith of IBEC and/or government reflect a sincere naivety among trade union leaders or a conscious effort to ensure that trade unionism in Ireland reflects Mussolini’s corporatist model of defanged, weak and powerless trade unions that are there to ensure their own members don’t get too uppity.  

Conclusion

The Independent Workers’ Union believes that social partnership has not been a net positive in Ireland and we place that belief on the many societal crises facing the working class in Ireland. Low union density, union busting, lack of any strikes and low levels of trade union consciousness among hundreds of thousands of workers suggest that only one layer of Irish society has done well out of social partnership: the employer class, HR consultants, legal representatives and the political class who represent them. Statistics from the CSO suggest that despite being a nominally high wage economy, the value of our ‘high wages’ is simply devoured through rent extraction, high costs of living and the privatisation and/or outsourcing of key industry and public services. 

The cosy relationship that several trade union officials have had with the government and employers has left trade unionists from all over the movement feeling disempowered and despondent about trade unions. Often we will hear people cursing the names of their unions and denouncing trade unionism.This double absence of any assertive and class orientated leadership is concerning and will only be accelerated by the readiness of senior officials to continue trying to cosy up to the employer class and government for personal gain in the form of committee/board/labour court appointments.

The way forward for our trade union movement is not to set ourselves up as a “responsible stakeholder” who dines with the employer class, but as the representatives of the wants and needs of the whole working class and to fight. We must fight for a better Ireland. We must fight for respect. We must fight for a better distribution of the super profits that are being made by many different small, medium and large businesses. We must invest in workers young and old instead of obstructing them through administrative and bureaucratic methods. 

We must rally our communities because when workers win a bigger share of the pie – so do our communities because that is where the money won from employers is spent.

The Independent Workers’ Union re-asserts the need for a class orientated trade union movement and a rejection of bad deals for workers. We call upon trade unionists of all Irish Congress of Trade Union unions to study the action plan comprehensively and to reject it within their own trade union structures and to join our call for a stronger and more militant trade union movement befitting the names of James Connolly and James Larkin. The Independent Workers’ Union re-asserts our commitment to the organising model that has been the core of success for trade unions for the last 150 years. We re-assert a member first strategy that focuses on the material wants and needs of our members and embraces strike action as a capable and potent tool that needs to be deployed regularly against an unscrupulous employer class.

END