Download - Irish Congress of Trade Unions

‘Lost generation’ warningSIPTU has called on the Irishgovernment to act to boost theeconomy following the release ofjobs data showing the continuedscale of the crisis.Campaigns and equality organiserEthel Buckley said: “The latest LiveRegister figures indicate thatunemployment remains at 14.6%.“The unfortunate situation wouldseem to be that there has been littleimprovement in terms of jobcreation since the onset of the crisisfive years ago.” She pointed out thatthe number of those who werelong-term unemployed had risen by3.3% over the last year and claimedthat the only factor stopping thatfigure from rising was the impact ofemigration.Ms Buckley added: “Action mustbe taken now to alleviate the State’s€64bn debt burden so that fundscan be invested in large scale andeffective job creation schemes.“Otherwise, a generation will belost to unemployment or emigration.”UNIONS!WE’RE IN THEUNION POSTSO WHYAREN’TYOU?FOR AD RATES CARD EMAIL braziermedia@btinternet.comIMF chief economist OlivierBlanchard believes GeorgeOsborne needs to thinkagain on UK economyPictures: IMF (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0); CongressIMF chief calls for austerity u-turnBunting: ‘Austerity is failing’Mandate welcomes Dunnes riseMANDATE has welcomed DunnesStores’ announcement that it willpay its staff a 3% pay rise – but expressedcontinued disappointmentthat bosses at the retailer were stillfailing to respect their workers’ rightto be represented by a trade union.The wage hike – the first since2007 – was announced on January17 and affects more than 14,000shop workers across the Republic.Assistant general secretary GerryLight said: “The company persists inbeing high-handed in its dealingswith their workers at local andnational level as well as the institutionsof the State.“Hopefully, they might learn from14CONGRESS assistant generalsecretary Peter Bunting haswelcomed the IMF’s belatedrecognition that continuedausterity policies are snuffingout any chance of an economicrecovery in the UK.he was responding tocomments made by IMFchief economist OlivierBlanchard in a January 24interview on the BBC’sToday programme.Mr Blanchard advisedchancellor George Osborneto slow down the pace ofplanned spending cuts in thesome of their competitors thattreating people with respect is infact a business asset – not a liability.”Mr Light claimed that most retailcompanies had emerged intactfrom the economic crisis and hadremained highly profitable.And he also pointed to industryestimates that Dunnes Stores generatedsales of around €3.8bn a yearand was achieving significant profits– efforts which were in large partdue to the efforts of hard-workingstaff.He added: “Since early 2011Mandate has sought to engage withretail employers to put in place payarrangements that reflect theircoming months. he told theBBC: “You have a Budgetcoming in March. We thinkthis is a good time to takestock and see whether someadjustment could be made.Budget time seems like theright time to do thesethings.”Mr Bunting said: “The IMFhas, at last, admitted whattheir own research has beentelling them for some time,that austerity isn’t working.“It hasn’t worked for theUK economy, which will onceagain be plunged into aworkers’ contribution to thatsuccess.”Meanwhile, following the decisionby Dunnes Stores to concede a 3%pay rise, SIPTU has made it clearthat similar increases will be soughtfor workers in other retail companies.Organiser Graham Macken, saidthe acceptance by Dunnes was“good news for workers in the retailsector” and that when taken alongwith similar increases at otherretailers, including Tesco, Marks &Spencer and Debenhams, highlightedthe continued profitability of thesecompanies despite the increasedpressure on sales.triple-dip recession causedby the obstinacy of thisWestminster government.“Austerity is failing thepeople of Northern Ireland,where the recession seemsto have no end in sight.”TUC general secretaryFrances O’Grady agreed.She said: “The IMF is sayingwhat we've warned about foryears – that sharp austerityoff the back of a global crashwill turn a recession into adecade-long depressionof low growth and highjoblessness.”Light: ‘Respect is business asset’Picture: MandateTHE UNION POST y February 2013