Unions must face the cutbacks

COMMENT

I USED to be a good trade unionist. Not any longer.
I still could not pass a picket and never have. Even if I did not particularly agree with the picket.
It’s just one of those things I could never do. Like a good Catholic could not miss mass on Sunday.
I still consider myself a socialist. That is if socialism still means taking from the rich to support the poor. But one can be a trade unionist without being a socialist. Just as one can be a socialist without being a member of a trade union.
As a matter of fact, the vast majority of trade union members vote for Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael if they vote at all. Only a minority vote for any of the socialist parties such as the Labour Party or Sinn Féin or for Joe Higgins.
I am totally opposed to the trade unions’ pledge “to bring this country to a standstill” in protest against the Government’s proposals to cut the public sector wage bill by €1.3 billion in the Budget next month.
There was a time when I would have supported almost any action to try and prevent government cutbacks. But I have grown up since then.
I hate to be on the same side as certain columnists in the Sunday Independent who have always loved to bash the trade unions. William Martin Murphy would be proud of them.
But I have to agree with them when they say that striking over the proposed Government cuts is an act of national sabotage.
Several members of my own family are public sector workers and will not agree with me on this issue. But as a country, we have been living beyond our means for several years now and will have to cut back. The Government has no choice. We are borrowing €500 million each week to provide the public services we enjoy and we have to cut that down.
The trade unions say we can postpone the cutbacks. That is pie in the sky.
The Government has decided to reduce our debt by around €4 billion this year and by similar amounts over the next few years.
That is postponement enough. Of course, none of us will like those cutbacks.
I agree with the unions when they say taxation should be increased. But I do not believe that extra taxation alone will get us out of the woods. There have to be severe cutbacks as well. And the brunt of the cutbacks should hit the better-off the hardest.
But I also believe that none of us should be able to escape, apart from those who are most in need. We are all going to have to do without something or other, whether that means less money in our pockets or poorer public services or both. It will also mean, of course, that Fianna Fáil are probably going to be more unpopular than they are at present. That is if they do not funk it and give in to the outrageous demands being made this week by the leaders of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and of the main unions in this country.
Of course, the unions are not alone in making ridiculous demands. The farmers, as usual, do not seem to believe that the country is on the verge of bankruptcy. They think that cutbacks should not affect them.
But everybody is feeling the pinch in the present recession. The tourism industry is also of vital national importance. But hotels up and down the country are either closing down or giving away accommodation at bargain prices. And there is very little the Government can do for them.
The same is true of industry in general. The housing market has collapsed. Newspapers have their backs to the wall as advertising has slumped to a record low.
Certainly we are going to come out of the recession. That may be next year. Or we many have to wait until 2011 or even 2012. But it is going to take a longer time for us to be able to afford what we could afford during the boom years. That is the reality.
But the sooner we accept that reality and accept the need for a hair-shirt Budget in December, the sooner will the recession be over.
Now is not the time for blaming the Government for causing the recession. Now is the time for dealing with it. We can blame the Government if we like when the next general election comes along. Whenever that will be. We can blame the public service unions if we like for making outlandish pay demands during the Celtic Tiger years – and the Government for giving in to them then. But that will get us nowhere.
However, we should certainly blame the unions now – along with the farmers and all the other interest groups, and the Government too – if the Government gives in to them again and shies away from doing what needs to be done to get us out of this recession
I understand it if trade union and farmers’ leaders put their members’ interests first. That is what they are elected to do.
But their members’ long-term interests would best be served by accepting the need for severe cutbacks in Government spending now.