The Industrial Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland stands in full solidarity with public service workers striking over pay and declining living standards.
The government allowed the previous agreement to expire without obtaining a credible successor and must now make substantive movement. Workers are right to reject any settlement that leaves them poorer in real terms.
The objective should be clear: real pay increase for members, protecting workers and their families against inflation, honouring unmet commitments, and preventing pay negotiations from becoming a blank cheque for the Government on labour deployment, restructuring and change.
Industrial action is justified, and additional escalation should remain available where Government refuses to move. But militancy should not be measured by strike length or ever-larger demands. Measure it by whether industrial action strengthens workers’ bargaining power, secures concrete gains, and builds confidence and collective power for the long battles ahead.
Communists reject any artificial separation between industrial and political struggle. The fight over wages and working conditions is the central arena of class conflict. Our task is to give that struggle a clear political voice whilst supporting disciplined, hard-headed bargaining aimed at winning the strongest achievable settlement for workers.
