Irish Congress of Trade Unions asks Cork councillors to back worker charter
The congress charter for fair conditions at work seeks basic terms for workers, including a living wage, fair hours of work, fair public procurement, respect at work, and union recognition.
Yesterday’s presentation was to a committee of Cork county councillors but the Ictu delegation said, given the positive response they received, it was hopeful the full council will back the charter when put before it as a motion.
The delegation is set to make a presentation to a full meeting of Cork City Council on Monday.
The charter campaign has already led to more than 120 TDs and MEPs signing up and has received backing from Kerry and Dublin councils.
Meanwhile, Siptu and the Technical, Electrical and Engineering Union have confirmed that their members working in local authorities under the management of Irish Water have voted by 91% and 84% respectively in favour of industrial action up to and including work stoppages to prevent what they describe as the privatisation of the public water service.
Last month, Irish Water said it intended to reduce the local authority workforce in the company by up to 1,500 by 2021. The unions said the “unilateral” announcement was in breach of the service level agreement reached with trade unions in 2013.
Siptu sector organiser Brendan O’Brien said: “The result of this vote represents a very strong mandate from our members to fight the creeping privatisation of the public water service. We do not accept the public water service can be adequately delivered with the planned reduction of frontline staff numbers which is in the order of 40%.”
Impact trade union, which represents hundreds more of the local authority workers, has commenced a ballot of its members.
