CPSU One Day Strike

by John - PSEU Thu Feb 26, 2009 19:26

Lara - Fair play to you for not crossing the CPSU picket. I know a few other PSEU members who took the same stance - including some who normally work out-of-office but who made sure they had to go to the office today only so they could turn back when they came up against a picket line (out of a sense of solidarity, accepting the fact that they would lose a day's pay). There actually aren't any CPSU members in my workplace so I didn't have this moral dilemma.

I think one issue we all face here is that most of us have never been on strike in the Celtic Tiger/social partnership times. We have absolutely no idea how strikes are organised, what happens on a strike, what is meant by union and public solidarity, what/if any are the strike rules, how/when these can/not be broken, how to connect with other public sector unions at grassroots level and, crucially, how to break through the public/private divide and build a movement that protects jobs/pensions/benefits and demands a fair recovery package, beyond talks with employers, a package that demands that those who profited from the boom years pay their fair share for recovery.

Indeed, if the various splintered sections of the left in Dublin can manage to coordinate anything together, it would be well worth their while organising a workshop on strike action for younger workers (i.e. not teenagers but anyone under 40) - something with a practical focus but which includes a critique of the 'union official=middle man rather than advocate' system of social partnership. Most workers in the public sector have never experienced what is happening in Dublin Bus or Waterford Glass - lessons shared would be a valuable exercise.

Aine - Sympathies with your situation, but if you are on a 3-day week earning 21,500 then you are already earning more than entry-level clerical officers. Cutting public service salaries is not going to make your situation any better. In fact, it will make it worse. The pension tax/levy is setting the scene for an all-out assault on wages across the public and private sectors. No doubt your employer did well from the housing boom and is now saying that he (usually, although not exclusively) cannot afford to pay you a decent pension.

Yes of course you should be marching for a decent pension but that doesn't mean that you need to march against the pensions which civil servants have. Instead of opposing public sector action, workers in the private sector like you should join calls for more equitable taxation and a fairer system of public cuts - at the very least a higher income tax rate on your employer as well as public servants earning over a certain amount; higher tax rates on inheritances/gifts and corporate profits; a review of public spending/appointments in state agencies which all-too-often have been based on friendship/political donations rather than ability; major cuts (beyond those announced) in the allowances and expenses paid to elected reps and semi-elected/appointed senators; cutting the vast majority of Minister of State posts; as well as an end to the system of full ministers requiring political advisors to advise them on optics and to tell them how to read their phoneticised scripts (and that's without going into petty detail like haircuts, make-up, use of the jet etc).

As others have pointed out there is no secrecy about standard civil servant salaries. You can get that information from the Department of Finance website, or from any of the ICTU public sector union websites. What you will not see there is information on bonuses for secretary generals, information on the linkage of the salaries/pensions of the assistant secretary grade with some union officials (whose salaries are, of course, paid from those of their members), and the small amount of bonuses paid to civil servants of a certain grade by virtue of the fact that they work for the Department of Finance or the Department of the Taoiseach (the latter department of questionable real value to the taxpayer).

Flexible working conditions in the Irish public service have a long way to go until we reach Nordic levels but admittedly they are, in general, better than those of our private sector colleagues. However these are rights - or in some cases privileges - which were won over time following concerted campaigns by public servants and protracted negotiations by their unions. Hence tomorrow we have Work Life Balance Day - an interesting juxtaposition you may say - on Work Life Balance Day we may leave work one hour early (provided there is sufficient cover in each office). This tiny privilege is not worth making a song & dance about, but admittedly it is probably not something which you have in your office. However, despite these more flexible conditions, public servants, and civil servants in particular, have fewer civil rights than workers in the private sector (an anomaly which is probably wide open to a legal challenge if ever the unions woke up to that fact).

For instance, we can't write letters to newspapers, we possibly can't put our full names on sites like this if the subject matter is deemed political (and what isn't political?). Above the clerical grade we can't run for election to public office. We are not permitted to attend political demonstrations and, at all times, we are supposed to 'maintain a reserve in matters political' - which probably means that if your child has special needs, but you are a civil servant, then you cannot be part of any campaign which puts pressure on the Minister for Education to ensure that your child is cherished equally (although the Department of Finance has very helpfully clarified that we may join residents' associations, thank you very much indeed). All of this dates back to the creation of the state and of an administrative system independent of the tweedle-dum/tweedle-dee politics which haunts us to this day. Yet we have it still and, to my knowledge, this second-class citizenship has never been qualified in any benchmarking exercise. (I for one would rather the unions fought for these rights instead of seeking financial compensation for our lack of them). Civil servants are also taxpayers and we should have the right to make known our views on how our taxes are spent by those who claim to represent us.

At the end of the day, public and private workers on normal incomes should not let these political games divide us. We need to unite to campaign for a better recovery plan, one which does not target low income workers, those receiving social welfare benefits, those on hospital waiting lists or children with special needs. The only way we can do this, is if we join forces and campaign together for a fairer system for all.

by Daithi Thu Feb 26, 2009 19:24

Their pay scales start at €18,736 (modest enough) and go to €31,043 (pretty good for office work)

€31,043 is max after 15 years, no more increases after that.

then you add their pensions (Worth another 28% on top)

Where'd you get that figure, as far as I know they pay 6% themselves, even if your figure is true the levy has wiped out any gain

Then you add job security.

How do you "add" job security exactly? And do you prefer a system of casual labour with no job security? All these jobs were open to the everyone to apply for so conditions of employment are not an issue unless you are proposing scab labour.

Then you add the fact that they have career paths which mean that most of them will progress into the executive grades before retirement.

Most of them? Do you have figures or are you just spouting shit? If your ill-informed drivel were true then the pyramid structure of the civil service would be inverted by now

How many office-workers in the private sector earn this much, get yearly wage-increases, or have anything more than the state pension when they retire at 65?<

very few, I bet.

Just betting are you no facts? Provide us with some, I know friends in the private sector earning a lot more for the same type of job, check how the banks pay i(f they will release figures without the garda fraud squad that is).

Eat your heart out Aine. Nobody is marching to have your wages re-instated or to give you pension-equality.

Enjoy your €12 grand

Speak for yourself and your IBEC /Sunday Indo friends, don't assume the rest of us are small-minded gombeens like you who obviously knows nothing about social solidarity.

by dunk Thu Feb 26, 2009 13:22

hey lara and all, hope things are ok for ye all in these difficult times.

Related infos:

One-day strike by civil servants
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0226/pension.html

Some 13,000 civil servants are staging a one-day strike over the pension levy.

It is the first industrial action of its kind in Ireland for almost 20 years.

The work stoppage, which will be followed by a series of regional protests, affects a range of services from welfare to passport offices.

audio
http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0226/pension_av.html?249793...l,209

Civil servants stage one-day strike against pension levy
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0226/...3.htm

Thousands of lower-paid civil servants are today staging a walk-out as they hold their first one-day stoppage in the deepening row over the controversial pension levy.

Some 13,000 civil and public servants in the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) are striking, forcing social welfare and passport offices to close and leaving other State services short-staffed.

by Lara Hill Thu Feb 26, 2009 12:09

First of all, thanks Sean C, I know I am putting myself in a precarious position. I thought long and heard about crossing the CPSU picket and in the end decided I was unable. I wrote down 8 reasons why it would be inconsistent for me personally to cross it.

On the public versus private sectors comments, I think it is a false divide mainly because it is a fluid border. People move between both sectors. I myself have worked in the private sector for as long as I have worked in the public sector. Now of course the relative job security is a comfort, but a couple of years ago people at my grade were leaving the civil service for more attractive offers in the private sector where they got performance bonuses, perks at Christmas, gym membership etc

Another thing to remember is that the civil service is like a pyramid with the vast majority of workers at the lower end of the scale. I know clerical officers who could not afford to live in Dublin on the clerical officer salary alone and either worked second jobs at night or transferred down the country where rents were cheaper.

by iris the virus Thu Feb 26, 2009 09:22

Their pay scales start at €18,736 (modest enough) and go to €31,043 (pretty good for office work)

then you add their pensions (Worth another 28% on top)

Then you add job security.

Then you add the fact that they have career paths which mean that most of them will progress into the executive grades before retirement.

How many office-workers in the private sector earn this much, get yearly wage-increases, or have anything more than the state pension when they retire at 65?

very few, I bet.

Eat your heart out Aine. Nobody is marching to have your wages re-instated or to give you pension-equality.

Enjoy your €12 grand.

by Daithi Thu Feb 26, 2009 01:40

Civil servants pay is in the public domain see link attached. Some of the wages are massive but only for top management. The vast majority of civil servants would be clerical or executive officers and would be on under €19k and €25k starting respectively. Okayish I suppose but you would've had to work a couple of lifetimes to but a house in Dublin on that money.

The public/private worker divide is shite peddled by right wing elements in the media worried about getting the business elites to pay some taxes for a change. The real issue is the low versus the high paid be it public/private.

by turned worm Wed Feb 25, 2009 22:32

Brilliant idea Aine.

A march for pension equality for all workers would unite both public and private workers and completely refute the arguments of those who are trying to divide the victims of the bankers and developers recession by saying that the march is only to protect the privileges of the civil servants.

by Aine Barron Wed Feb 25, 2009 20:49

I am an office worker in a solicitors office and have been put on a three day week because no houses are being sold and there is no conveyaning work for people working in solicitors offices. I used earn €21,500 per annum before tax. I will now have to survive on 3/5ths of that for the forseeable future. I pay social insurance and will qualify for the social welfare contributory pension when I get to 65 (if I haven't starved to death first).

How much do the civil service clerical grades earn? Is there a web-site where I can get this information?

Shouldn't we all be marching to get the same pensions as civil servants? If equality and solidarity is the ideal to which we all aspire, why am I not entitled to have the government pay me the same pension as they pay their own employees?

Aine,

Office slave,
Dublin.

by Sean C Wed Feb 25, 2009 20:49

Lara your attitude is to be admired. But a word of caution. All civil servants who are not in the CPSU grades have been instructed by their unions to work normally. This is normal practice in this type of situation. The CPSU are not requesting that you don't cross their picket line. They and the other unions are requesting that you don't do the work of the CPSU members. If you don't take annual leave or a sick day but say you weren't willing to cross the picket line, you may end up being disciplined and your union won't defend you because they have already issued you with instructions and the ICTU rules governing this type of situation. So be careful.

by Lara Hill Wed Feb 25, 2009 19:38

I agree it's important to show solidarity even though the PSEU has instructed us to attend work as normal. I intend to present for work acknowledge the picket at my building and turn around. I hope other PSEU members will do the same, but if I'm the only one in my building to do this, so be it. I'd be interested to hear of any other solidarity actions by members of unions other that the CPSU.