Frontline workers to form new union

[Barnacle]

SIPTU about to lose a number of members. A new Union is being established by Front Line Staff.

Representatives of thousands of frontline public servants, including fire fighters and ambulance paramedics, are leaving SIPTU to form a new trade union in alliance with the Psychiatric Nurses' Association.

PNA General Secretary Des Kavanagh said the primary aim of the new organisation would be to protect frontline services to the public, which he said were currently under immense threat.

Frontline workers to form new union - RT News

Will be interesting to see SIPTU's response to this!

 

[turdsl]

Everything goes round in circles if you wait long enough, The PNA broke away from SIPTU
to have a union of their own,

 

[Congalltee]

How much will its leader be paid?

 

[Freedom front]

Are SIPTU officials going to get pension deals (AKA Ahern) from the state they served so well to destroy

 

[Socratus O' Pericles]

Are SIPTU officials going to get pension deals (AKA Ahern) from the state they served so well to destroy

No!! They will get them from the members instead.

I'm not surprised the social partnership addicts in SIPTU/IMPACT/teaching unions/Civil service unions provided little in the way of service to their mwembers for years now.

 

[Ethan Edwards]

Was there not a Frontline Union formed last year when all the cuts to public service wages began, it had the Guards, Nurses, Prison Officers, Ambulance drivers, Fire personnel. If memory serves they said they were going to fight the wage cuts, service cuts and the way the Public service had been vilified in the media, they started off really gung ho! But after a few weeks imo became smug and arrogant claiming they should be regarded as separate PS workers and exempt from cuts because of what they do. Then the army were told to pull out of this escapade by the Govt which they did then the bold Dermot Ahern TD Minister for Justice told the Guards that if they acted the bo**ix "Frontline" leaders could be sacked from the force and maybe arrested and the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy had a quiet word in the same leaders ears and then silence, in fact the silence was deafening compared to what had come in the preceding weeks. I myself felt a deal had been done with the arms of the state that are needed if trouble comes down the line such as The Army, The Guards, and The Prison officers the rest can whistle, so a bit of surprise to see it is starting again wonder how long this will last?

 

[irish_bob]

irish people have always been suckers for certain sacred cows , pensioners , nurses , perhaps this newly formed union believes we will oppose pay cuts for theese select few , believing instead that all that is nescessery is for backroom pen pushers to be removed from the payroll

 

[rigumagoo]

This is excellent news.
Fragmentation will make the millitant unions weaker.
Maybe this country will not be strangled by their unreasonable demands after all.
If Larkin's millstone continues to get chipped away like this we might stand a chance of restoring our country to economic vitality.

 

[firefly123]

Was there not a Frontline Union formed last year when all the cuts to public service wages began, it had the Guards, Nurses, Prison Officers, Ambulance drivers, Fire personnel. If memory serves they said they were going to fight the wage cuts, service cuts and the way the Public service had been vilified in the media, they started off really gung ho! But after a few weeks imo became smug and arrogant claiming they should be regarded as separate PS workers and exempt from cuts because of what they do. Then the army were told to pull out of this escapade by the Govt which they did then the bold Dermot Ahern TD Minister for Justice told the Guards that if they acted the bo**ix "Frontline" leaders could be sacked from the force and maybe arrested and the Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy had a quiet word in the same leaders ears and then silence, in fact the silence was deafening compared to what had come in the preceding weeks. I myself felt a deal had been done with the arms of the state that are needed if trouble comes down the line such as The Army, The Guards, and The Prison officers the rest can whistle, so a bit of surprise to see it is starting again wonder how long this will last?

The 24/7 Frontline alliance was founded without the approval of the big ICTU unions. The reason was that David Begg and ICTU were about to offer the government the shift allowances and weekend payments of frontline workers to save the pay of the majority of their members. It served its purpose to ward off those particular cuts but it sowed the seeds of this new organisation. The vast majority (over 85%) of firefighters voted against the Croke Park Deal (which should please many on here). Our beef was mainly that the croke park deal was a one size fits all solution to possibly the most diverse group of workers in the state. The workers being specifically aimed at here are Firefighters, Paramedics and the psychiatric nurses. They have been under represented (and in many cases misrepresented) by the bigger PS unions such as SIPTU and IMPACT. This union is specifically for emergency service workers and will be staffed by personel who have done the job themselves.
Its primary aim is to have an independent voice on behalf of Fire Fighters and Paramedics so that the issues of importance to the membership are highlighted and that threats to the safety of the community we serve can be highlighted by those who are experts by training and experience in their own service.

irish people have always been suckers for certain sacred cows , pensioners , nurses , perhaps this newly formed union believes we will oppose pay cuts for theese select few , believing instead that all that is nescessery is for backroom pen pushers to be removed from the payroll

Irish Bob. Our aim here is to have a union that represents frontline emergency workers. The people involved are also frontline workers (or have been) and know our job. We are currently being represented by those who have no clue what our job entails. Our emergency services are being run in to the ground. Even during the "boom" time we received little in the way of improved services. From my own experience we currently have only one more emergency ambulance in the Dublin Fire Brigade than we had in 1986. Now that is under threat and neither SIPTU or IMPACT have done a tap about it. Suddenly with the threat of this new union they are both trying to jump on to the bandwagon and claim credit for the work that the crews on the ground have done. We don't see ourselves as elite but you must acknowledge that we are not the same as 9-5 clerical staff. Our needs and theirs do not converge just because we have the same employer. The emergency services in this country are Hugely understaffed compared to international best practice and that is something we will fight to remedy.
We will also try to educate the public as to what we actually do and what we are capable of doing if given the chance.

This is excellent news.
Fragmentation will make the millitant unions weaker.
Maybe this country will not be strangled by their unreasonable demands after all.
If Larkin's millstone continues to get chipped away like this we might stand a chance of restoring our country to economic vitality.

Why do I get a mental image of Mr Burns when I read this. I guess we know which side of the fence your ancestors sat on during the 1913 lockout. Perhaps you should employ a boy to clean your chimney so that you don't have to avail of the services of us scum sucking leeches. petunia

 

[Luigi Vampa]

PS Professionals such as Doctors, Teachers, Engineers, Accountants etc. should also merge into one union group and dump Begg O'Connor and Co. It's about time the real PS workers hung all the unnecessary and parasitic layers of so called administrative managers and fat cats in the PS out to dry.

 

[Berty]

irish people have always been suckers for certain sacred cows , pensioners , nurses , perhaps this newly formed union believes we will oppose pay cuts for theese select few , believing instead that all that is nescessery is for backroom pen pushers to be removed from the payroll

Getting through the hospital system would be very difficult without nurses. Try it sometime!!

 

[rob]

Getting through the hospital system would be very difficult without nurses. Try it sometime!!

difficult with nurses too when they work to rule and use patients in their blackmail

 

[Skin]

This is excellent news.
Fragmentation will make the millitant unions weaker.
Maybe this country will not be strangled by their unreasonable demands after all.
If Larkin's millstone continues to get chipped away like this we might stand a chance of restoring our country to economic vitality.

This is great news. The current trade union leadership is part of the problem. It is part of the political status quo. This will shake up the trade union movement. SIPTU is not a militant union, it panders to government.

 

[firefly123]

difficult with nurses too when they work to rule and use patients in their blackmail

You understand what a work to rule means right? It means you work to what it says in your contract and nothing more. What does that tell you is going on in hospitals?

Is it that maybe the nurses are working over and above what they are paid to do in order to make a broken system work. That doesn't really fit in with certain peoples view of the public sector does it?
I know some people think of all PS workers as lazy, incompetent, useless leeches who bleed the coffers dry but we ain't.

There are wasters in every organisation but 99% of patients in our hospitals will have nothing but good things to say about the medical staff. Now as for the HSE admin machine grinding slowly in the background, thats another matter.

 

[hmmm]

You understand what a work to rule means right? It means you work to what it says in your contract and nothing more. What does that tell you is going on in hospitals?

Sorry but all it tells me PS workers live in a world circa 1890, where all duties are somehow listed in detail. You'll be hard pressed to find similar contracts in the private sector, where workers are expected to be flexible in terms of both duties and working hours.

 

[asknoquestions]

agreed, if a lightbulb blows in most offices, somebody has to get up and fix it. In the public sector they have to get an electrician in because it's not in nurses' or anybody else's contract to fix it.

Of course, if someone did replace it, the electricians would probably go on strike...

 

[Capt Blah]

In the health service staff must contend with the incompetence of the HSE, the huge shortage of facilities and the utter worthlessness of the unions. I personally know admin staff in the health system who work many unpaid extra hours to get the work done. They face a constant stream of demands from the HSE/HIQA for statistics and reports. HIQA is using NHS templates for much of its data-gethering so Irish staff are being asked for information which does not exist due to structural differences between the two systems.

Some nursing/medical staff also work more hours than they are paid for but mostly just work their shifts.

SIPTU no longer has any interest in representing anybody bar itself. It likes being a big boy, sitting at the big table with government. However it does act to prevent its members joining other unions, whilst at the same time getting nice and cosy with management.

A new union, staffed by actual workers, is a good idea - most union leaders haven't done a day's work in so long that they forget what it feels like.

 

[Harmonica]

Interesting that the new union mentions its ultimate goal is proection of their members pay. At least they are honest & not saying its about the sick people who available of their services.

 

[uriah]

agreed, if a lightbulb blows in most offices, somebody has to get up and fix it. In the public sector they have to get an electrician in because it's not in nurses' or anybody else's contract to fix it.

Of course, if someone did replace it, the electricians would probably go on strike...

I work in the public service as a front-line professional.

I have cleaned up after floods, I have cleaned my own place of work after the builders left a mess behind them; I regularly move furniture.
I have shopped (in my own time) for office equipment, requisites, etc.;
I have fixed computer problems, set up new computers and peripherals, carried buckets of water to refill cisterns to keep toilets working when pipes were frozen. I have cleaned my own place of work, performed many tasks which would never have been considered to be part of my job;
I have used my own car and my own phone for work purposes (without receiving payment or expenses);

Changing lightbulbs and plugs, which I have frequently done, would be considered very minor tasks.

In my profession, everybody needs to be a jack-of-all-trades.

 

[democracyforall]

have we all gone mad??? this is playing into the hands of the powers to be!!! can we not agree that all workers have the right to fair representation. if siptu or impact are not stepping up well then they do not deserve to take a workers weekly subs. if you paid for someone to clean your car and they didnt do, anyone would do the same. 1 not pay them and 2 go to someone that will do it. its as simple as that. nobody looking for special treatment just fair treatment