Siptu joins IMPACT to back Croke Park deal


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Siptu joins IMPACT to back Croke Park deal

6/11/2010 - 2:56:36 PM

The country's largest trade union Siptu has backed the Croke Park agreement.

Siptu members have passed the Croke park deal struck between unions and government officials earlier this year by a two to one majority.

It follows a similiar result by members of the IMPACT trade union who passed the agreement by a three to one majority.

The trade union said 65% of those who voted agreed to back the plan with general president Jack O’Connor calling for management to do their bit to secure reforms while respecting workers.

O'Connor said: “The onus now passes on to those at the top of society who have contributed little or nothing to the resolution of our economic problems while working people and those who depend most on public services have carried the lion’s share of the burden.”

Despite the strong support, Shay Cody, the IMPACT union’s general secretary designate, said he believed workers had yet to be convinced of management’s ability to deliver better public services.

“The union now has a strong mandate to operate this agreement in the interests of public services, the people who depend on them, and the Impact members who deliver them,” he said.

“It has not been easy to achieve this agreement, and the months and years ahead will be equally challenging.”

In a letter sent to Impact branches this afternoon, Mr Cody said: “Inertia is now the biggest challenge facing public service reform and people who use and deliver public services need to see early evidence that this agreement is going to deliver for them.

“We need an indication from Government that it will challenge senior public service managers and require them to start acting now to work the agreement, deliver real reforms, and involve staff and unions from the very beginning as they are required to under this deal.

“The Taoiseach should begin by calling all the key public service management players together, with staff representatives, to set out how the reforms are going to be driven and staff involved.”

Impact has also suspended industrial action.