The Government's "crazy decentralisation plan" and its decision to sell off a stake in Aer Lingus were sharply criticised during the May Day rally in Dublin on Saturday.
About 300 people marched down O'Connell Street from Parnell Square as part of the annual event organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions.
At a concluding rally outside Liberty Hall, Siptu national industrial secretary Michael Halpenny said the Government had marked the anniversary of the 1916 Rising, as well as the 70th birthday of Aer Lingus, by selling off the national airline to private speculators.
"Well as far as the workers in Aer Lingus are concerned, this game is not over yet. This decision is bad for the country, bad for the consumer, bad for the company and bad for the workers," he claimed.
He criticised Fianna Fáil TDs for failing to attend a public meeting on the issue organised by Siptu last Thursday. "But we know who our friends are, and they were there. They are to be found in the Labour Party, they are to be found in Sinn Féin, they are to be found in the Socialist Party, they are to be found in the Greens and the Independents and in all good friends of labour elsewhere."
Mr Halpenny said he also brought greetings from Siptu members in Fás, the State training and employment agency, who were involved in the struggle against the Government's "crazy decentralisation plan".
Siptu is currently engaged in industrial action in Fás over management's decision to confine promotions to staff who are prepared to move to the agency's planned new headquarters in Birr, Co Offaly. Birr is in the constituency of Minister of State Tom Parlon, who is in charge of implementing the decentralisation programme.
Mr Halpenny criticised Mr Parlon over signs that were erected on entry roads to the constituency when the programme was first announced, welcoming civil servants to "Parlon country". The Siptu official said Governments should be elected and controlled by the people and should not be the "plaything of vested political interests".
"Well our members in Fás and the other State agencies have a message for Mr Tom Parlon, and it's this: 'Welcome to James Connolly country'," Mr Halpenny said, to loud applause.
Banners representing Labour, Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party and the Communist Party were on display at the rally, while unions visibly represented included Siptu and the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union. Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) president Peter McLoone and Siptu president Jack O'Connor were among the trade unions leaders present.
Senior Ictu official Fergus Whelan claimed the Government was still failing to protect workers' rights, despite the public outrage arising from the disputes last year at Gama Construction and Irish Ferries. Only last week Ictu officials had been told "terrible tales of gross exploitation" at a meeting with 102 Polish workers in Newbridge, Co Kildare.
One example involved a road haulage company that sacked four men after they had done eight weeks' work. It paid them for a month's work only, and replaced them with four other workers who were treated "exactly the same way", he said.
The only solution, said Mr Whelan, was to organise migrant workers into unions.
