Unions urge Taoiseach to intervene in bid to avert public sector strike

The Taoiseach should intervene to get a talks process started if further public sector strikes and disruption are to be prevented, Fórsa union leader Kevin Callinan has suggested.He was speaking after the union side rebuffed late efforts by Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and the Government side to engage and prevent the one-day strike by more than 300,000 public and civil servants that got under way countrywide overnight.Schools, colleges, libraries, council offices and many parks are among the publicly run facilities that are closed on Wednesday because of the action. Health services are severely disrupted, with all elective procedures and thousands of appointments postponed.[ What services will be affected by the public sector strike and what will be closed?Opens in new window ]Callinan was responding to a suggestion by Chambers that while the Government wanted talks to begin at the Workplace Relations Commission on Tuesday, he would consider other ways to achieve progress if that could not be done.READ MOREAsked about what might break the deadlock, Callinan, who also chairs the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said it would take “an intervention. And I think that intervention has to come from ... the Taoiseach.”The Government is likely to make a push to bring the unions into a talks process after the stoppage as it seeks to avoid further strikes scheduled for next week.According to sources familiar with the Government’s position, renewed efforts to start negotiations in the coming days may include seeking an independent mediator or facilitator to bring the two sides together. Coalition sources stopped short of saying they would agree to the unions’ demand to deal with pay first in the negotiations.It is likely that informal approaches will be made with a view to repairing relations which have become strained in recent days.Callinan was critical of Chambers for failing to speak directly to union leaders. “If he was serious about trying to reach an agreement, at some point over the last four months, he would have either met us or picked up the phone to talk to us and try, first of all, to understand what it is that’s required, and secondly, to respond to it.”Strike: is there any chance it could be called off? The hope on the Government side is that once this stoppage is out of the way, the union side may become more amenable to entering talks. Other sources, however, warned of underestimating what they say is the anger of public servants.Callinan echoed this point. He said the focus from the Government side on the union leaders ignored the strength of feeling among members who had voted by huge margins in every participating union to take action. “It continues to be dismissive of our members’ concerns,” he said.At Cabinet, Chambers reiterated his position that the previous pay deals had delivered inflation-beating increases for the State’s more than 400,000 public servants. But unions have accused him of “cherry-picking figures”.Unions will meet over the coming days to consider what action to take if the dispute runs beyond next Wednesday’s strike in order to meet the required notice periods to employers. But Callinan said on Tuesday they were already focusing on next week’s stoppage “and beyond”.