The Restaurant Association of Ireland and Ibec won’t like it. Fine Gael certainly won’t like it. The army of commentators armed only with superficial and out-of-date analysis won’t like it. But the report on the Joint Labour Councils written by Kevin Duffy and Dr Frank Walsh does a good job [...]

TASC did something quite unusual, even revolutionary: they looked up the facts. With all the unsubstantiated claims about labour costs, ‘Myths of the Irish Crisis: Wages and Competitiveness‘ is truly fresh air in a stale debate.  Here I reproduce the data from Eurostat which TASC uses to show that Irish labour costs in low-paid sectors [...]

A basic income is an income universally and unconditionally granted by the state to all on an individual basis, without means test or work requirement. It is a form of minimum income guarantee, also known as a citizens’ income or social dividend. It differs from state payments that now exist in various European countries in [...]

I’m usually not partial to terms like ‘class war’ but readers might be able to provide an alternative description to what is happening.
First, we find that AIB employees were informed over the airwaves that there would be 2,000 redundancies plus with no guarantee that it will all be voluntary. A spokesperson from SIPTU - which [...]

Tesco admits to price manipulation - increasing the price of products before reducing them again as part of a price promotion. I’m shocked. Checkout magazine claimed that Tesco, rather than engaging in ‘price-cutting competition’, actually raised the price of 8,000 products in the first two months of this year. I’m stunned. Is this what capitalism [...]

It’s open season on public sector workers again. The Sunday Independent has a front-page shock-horror headline - €1bn pay rise bonanza for public sector. Other commentators and employers’ spokespersons have been having their go’s as well.  But then there’s Stephen Collins. Stephen has a statistic. You’ve been warned:
‘Average earnings in the British [...]

Today there is a protest in O’Connell Street in support of restaurant workers at 12:30 to 2:00 pm. Today the Quick Serve Alliance is going to court to have the system of Joint Labour Committees struck down as unconstitutional. Today and tomorrow and the days to come the battle [...]

TASC has made a very interesting submission to the Independent Review of ERO and REA Wage Setting Mechanisms, which provides “independent external economic and labour market evidence in support of the need for wage floors”. It argues strongly against the cut in the minimum wage, and highlights the fact that Ireland is unique within the [...]

A round-up of recent videos from Trade Union TV. Follow Trade Union TV on Facebook.
A truly fantastic protest by student nurses against pay cuts for those in our frontline services in Ireland.
On February 16th over 3,000 student nurses took to the streets of Dublin from all over Ireland to protest at government plans to cut [...]