Serious public service strikes over pensions and pay are possible this winter because of growing discontent among SIPTU members over the degree to which they have fallen behind comparable groups of workers in the private sector.
Yesterday, delegates to the union's biennial conference in Ennis supported calls for industrial action on both issues. The union leadership also warned the Government that if it failed to introduce a national minimum wage of £5 an hour by next year a major confrontation on the issue would be inevitable.
At today's session, delegates will consider motions calling for withdrawal from Partnership 2000 if some employers continue refusing to recognise unions.
The mood was summed up by the union's vice-president, Mr Des Geraghty, who said that, despite the boom, thousands of workers were still living on poverty wages and having their basic employment rights abused.
Mr Geraghty told delegates that some employers seemed to think that trade unions were in decline. But he warned them that SIPTU would be "an increasingly relevant force for social progress and people's rights in an often dehumanised, ruthless and competitive world".
"There are growing problems of job insecurity, inequality and short-term temporary contract working," he said. "We still have a need for major reform of the tax and welfare systems and a need for more employers to share the benefits of economic prosperity with their employees.
"There is still a major problem of unemployment, especially long-term unemployment," Mr Geraghty said. "We still need to improve the living standards of pensioners and the marginalised in society. We still have workers denied their basic right to join a trade union. The needs are evident and our job is to ensure that we can address those needs in today's circumstances." SIPTU, he said, would be demanding "a full and equal citizenship of the workplace, a right to enjoy the same status in society as any manager, shareholder or professional. That's a radical demand, but we are developing our organisation to do just that". He outlined plans to increase union membership by at least 5 per cent a year. This could be done by more training and education for members, more support services and encouraging greater participation by members in the union's democratic structures.
"We are organising ourselves for the next millennium by developing our people, organisation and technology to raise the status of workers in Irish society." SIPTU would become "a world-class union, representing our class unambiguously, but with the highest possible standards of service, organisation and effectiveness in today's and tomorrow's world".