The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is seeking an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, over what measures the Government intends taking to curb inflation.
The ICTU executive meets next Wednesday and its general purposes committee will be anxious to report on any discussions by then. Already some union leaders are calling for a special delegate conference on the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.
The ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said yesterday the latest annualised figure of 5.2 per cent "confirms the need for urgent action along the lines put forward by Congress at our meeting on Friday with senior civil servants. It is only by taking radical and concrete measures to tackle price increases and housing costs that the Government can maintain confidence in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness."
He added that congress would seek a meeting with the Taoiseach and relevant Government ministers "at the earliest opportunity to discuss the implementation of a package of measures to bring down the rate of inflation". Mr Cassells said "other options" would be considered by the ICTU executive council in the light of what happened at the Government meeting.
The Irish Business and Employers Confederation also expressed concern and disappointment at the inflation figures. It accepted that they might not yet have peaked, but it warned the unions against falling into the trap of a wage-price spiral.
This did not prevent the Irish secretary of the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union, Mr Mick O'Reilly, calling for a special delegate conference of ICTU. He said it was "imperative that the trade union movement takes the lead in ensuring that Irish workers are protected from the economic consequences of rising inflation".
The Mandate general secretary, Mr Owen Nulty, whose union is also opposed to entering the PPF, was equally unhappy with trends and said a special delegate conference was one of the options ICTU would have to consider. SIPTU, the State's largest union, has traditionally supported national agreements but its general secretary, Mr John McDonnell, said the time had come for the Government to take immediate action to address the situation.
