The President of the Workers’ Party, Michael
Finnegan, has called on public sector workers to reject the revised Croke Park
package, now renamed the Haddington Road Agreement.
Mr. Finnegan, who described the package as a “barely
tweaked facsimile” of the rejected deal, said that it had been cobbled together
as a face-saving exercise for the Labour Party and an attempt to pretend that
some level of partnership remained in the relationship between the government and
unions.
“This package, for it cannot be called a deal, is
the same old rehashed document rejected emphatically by workers a few weeks
ago. It is still a bad deal for workers
and an attack on pay and conditions, on future employment standards and on
jobs. A fortnight of frenetic
discussions and late-night poker games does not change the fundamentals of what
was rejected”, said the Workers’ Party President.
Mr. Finnegan said that the new package was not
achieved through a spirit of partnership and mutual respect between the
government and workers representatives but rather out of an atmosphere of
threat and bluster. “Whatever reality
there was behind the so-called Partnership process is long dead. The big-stick
is now the only game in town
and the Labour Party have taken it up with gusto on behalf of the Troika.
Workers can either bow down to the threats
and be sure of further attacks on pay and conditions or make a stand now and
reject this surrender charter.”, he said.
Issued Friday, 24th May 2013