Social partnership almost destroyed the labour movement in Ireland. The 1990 Industrial Relations Act, and the equivalent legislation in the six counties, have left unions with no political clout to shape our future. The Irish working class has suffered terribly from more than a decade of austerity – the direct transfer of wealth from workers to the ruling class. No doubt the other “social partners” (big business lobby groups like IBEC and the CIF) envision the same again in the coming months: working-class people to be sacrificed for a return to “economic stability”, when the Covid-19 debt is calculated. We know that such “stability” is a euphemism for savage cuts to wages and public services in order to restore profitability for investors, employers and landlords.
NO social partnership! NO social dialogue! NO return to “business as usual”!
