Kitty Holland writes this morning about how a ballot of SIPTU members gets underway today due to concerns that the "“vast majority” of the 31 local authorities are not honouring a commitment made at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last year – that water workers who remain with them rather than transfer to Uisce Éireann after 2026, will retain their current pay terms."

Fórsa's Education divisional conference wrapped on Friday, having established a strong media presence for the duration of the conference in Portlaoise. Not even the presence of a US president's visit to Leinster House could bump them off the air (although pretty much everyone was upstaged by baby Margot). In Saturday's edition of the Irish Examiner, Jess Casey wrote this piece about Fórsa's presence in the education sector, with strong input from new DEC member Carol McSherry.

Fórsa and other unions representing workers in the community and voluntary sector will attend WRC conciliation talks today aimed at resolving the long running dispute of pay inequality for members in the sector. The Journal previews, with comment from the Independent Living Movement and Fórsa.

Finally, Kevin Callinan's speech to the INTO conference last Monday picked up plenty of media coverage throughout the week, including an interview on Matt Cooper's Last Word on today FM last Tuesday.

Matt returned to the topic in his Business Post column yesterday, where he described Kevin's call that government would need to “make good the shortfall in pay against inflation” as "close enough to throwing down the gauntlet," and that the "constant call for wage moderation, during good times and bad, from those who make the payments only resonates for so long." You can read the full column here.

Zen

Your Zen moment this morning is a short epilogue to my last one (Owen McCafferty's Agreement continues its sellout run at Belfast's Lyric theatre), as the Lyric audience welcomes former US senator George Mitchell to a performance of the play at the weekend.

Have a lovely week.

Niall