The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has warned all sectors of the economy against taking social partnership for granted. With talks about to begin on a successor to Partnership 20000, he said: "Ireland must retain its winning formula of flexibility, innovation and competitiveness".
He was speaking at the launch of a joint training initiative for managers and union representatives at Dublin Castle yesterday evening. It involves the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation in a programme aimed at underpinning social partnership in the workplace.
"Working in Partnership" will provide one- and two-day courses aimed primarily at line managers and shop stewards. They will be offered joint training modules on a wide range of issues such as team skills, business awareness, reward and recognition systems, joint problem-solving and consensus decision-making, improving the quality of working life and learning how to develop partnership in the manufacturing and service sectors.
"It is my firm belief that the key stimulus to competitive advantage here has been social partnership and, in particular, the national agreements going back to 1987. Although the process has been expanded in terms of both objectives and participants, its basic philosophy has remained unaltered: consistency produces stability and stability creates wealth.
"As we head towards the commencement of substantive negotiations on a successor to Partnership 2000," he said, "all sectors of the economy and every situation of Irish life must guard against taking for granted the benefits achieved through social partnership.
"We must all seek to manage our success wisely, so as to ensure that the days of mass emigration, rampant unemployment and fiscal crisis are consigned to history.
"We must renew the social partnership process to face the challenge of increasing globalisation, which will render competition, including competition for foreign direct investment, even fiercer than at present. Ireland must retain its winning formula of flexibility, innovation and competitiveness.
"I would like to think that we can capture the dynamic virtues of the American economy and combine them with the greater social cohesion of the European economy. I have no doubt that, together, we can meet that challenge."
Welcoming the initiative, the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said that it had great significance for the partnership process. "The success or failure of partnership in the workplace will determine the prospects at national level," he said. The company where people learnt together would be the company that stayed together.
IBEC's director-general, Mr John Dunne, said people wanted to participate in decisions affecting their work. "They want to apply their intelligence, knowledge and skills to their jobs, and they want to know that they can share in the benefits which result.
"Many partnership programmes include methods of financial participation such as gain-sharing and profit-sharing to provide a share of the benefits for people who have contributed through additional productivity," he said.
The new training programme was devised by IBEC's human resource management consultant, Mr Liam Doherty, and the manager of ICTU's Education and Training Services Trust, Mr Sean Heading, under the auspices of the National Centre for Partnership, which is based in the Taoiseach's Department. The cost of courses to companies will be between £750 and £1,500.
The director of the NCP, Mr Jim O'Neill, said the modules addressed in a very comprehensive way the knowledge and skills which people needed to operate in a partnership culture.