Futile strike has achieved nothing

A virtual shutdown of public services around the country yesterday (Tuesday) by up to 250,000 State employees may have allowed workers to give vent to their anger and frustration at being targeted for pay cuts, but it has contributed nothing in terms of the team effort that is required to drag this country back from the brink of bankruptcy. The downing of tools over Govt plans to reduce the massive public sector pay bill by €1.3 billion led to the closure of schools, local authority and public offices and left hospitals and health facilities with a skeleton staff. Those who most depend on public services, such as those on social welfare or those who have waited weeks and perhaps months for elective surgical procedures, have been the ones who have lost out. The closure of schools will also have caused huge inconvenience to tens of thousands of working parents who will have had to make alternative arrangements. All of this while the country is on its knees, with hundreds of millions of euro of debt building up each week, hundreds of thousands of people on the dole and families struggling to make ends meet as Christmas approaches. This strike was a completely outdated response to a crisis which is going to require everyone to take some pain but also put their shoulder to the wheel to help salvage the economy and those jobs that are left. Instead, all that has emerged is the threat of a second 24-hour stoppage within the next few weeks. This sends out the completely wrong message to international investors who are looking at Ireland very closely that this country is not ready to take the measures that are needed to enable economic recovery. Tuesday's day of action is likely to achieve nothing more than drive a wider wedge between a private sector that has seen wages slashed, overtime reduced, abandonment of bonuses and jobs shed at an unprecedented rate, and what is still perceived as a cosseted and indulged public sector with its 'job for life' philosophy and guaranteed pension. It is crucial that public and private sector are not pitted against each other at this time. The initial belligerence of the public sector unions appears to have waned slightly this week with admissions from a number of union leaders that such shutdowns are not what anyone wants. The Government's vision for public sector reform must provide a sound basis for negotiation now and must ultimately result in a leaner and more efficient public service, employing less people but working more efficiently. This is what has already happened widely in companies operating at all levels in the private sector, who remain in survival mode. The Government, however, must not cave into unreasonable and impossible union demands. The country simply cannot afford a public sector pay bill that accounts for between 60 and 70 per cent of Government spending. How the required savings are to be achieved is a matter for the negotiators but it will be far better for everyone concerned and for the country as a whole if a breakthough can be achieved around a table than for further strikes to further polarise public opinion. Cutting public pay without agreement will more than likely result in further industrial and social conflict so the public sector pay bill should be reduced by negotiation. Recovery from this deep recession will require discipline from all sectors of society as well as an acceptance that we had been paying ourselves too much during the good times. Hundreds of thousands of employees in private companies already have accepted wage cuts and three-day weeks in order to preserve their jobs - it is neither possible nor plausible that State employees should be exempt from sharing the type of pain that has already been inflicted upon their counterparts in private industry. While an appeal must go out to all public sector workers not to take part in any further days of action, the decision taken by Government employees in flood-hit areas of the country to work normally yesterday must be acknowledged. Their efforts to assist people who have been severely hit by floodwaters in the south and west deserves commendation and those worst hit must be very grateful to those in the public service who continued to give help and assistance throughout Tuesday's day of protest.