October 14th public sector general strike shows a new force has arisen
“We’re in a different country now than we were on October 13th”. This comment from a leading trade unionist and Militant Left member sums up the seismic impact of Wednesday’s public sector general strike in the Irish republic.
It has indeed changed everything. For the well over 300,000 trade unionists that took part in the action, it was a day that will never be forgotten. For the first time in 17 years workers took part in a mass strike that completely shut schools, colleges, universities, hospitals (apart from agreed emergency cover), all council and civil services. Indeed it was the biggest mobilisation of working-class power seen in the state since 1979-80.
As soon as the clock ticked onto one minute past midnight on Wednesday 14 October, pickets began to be formed at Dublin Port and some council departments. By 8am, tens of thousands of trade unionists had amassed outside their workplaces across the country. Union placards, flags and banners were to be seen everywhere.
In most cases, pickets were in place until 4pm. The more than 20 trade unions who were striking together had done a great job of ensuring the rosters were filled. As a Militant Left member from Cork explained:
“The strike was solid and impressively organised. By 8am there were already hundreds of pickets outside the main hospital from across all the different unions. The same was repeated in dozens of picket lines across the city. Everyone seemed to have volunteered for a shift on the roster, meaning the pickets stayed solid all day walking with placards up and down the pavement back and forth past their gates, with cars tooting their support all day too.”
After a decade and a half of austerity and a cost of living crisis amid spiralling costs of housing, food and childcare, this was a chance to hit back against it all.
Yes, this strike was primarily about pay, and the demand for inflation-busting rises after years of effective pay cuts when taking account of inflation. But it was also an outlet for the massive anger at the out of touch political establishment and a society that has seen huge profits for multinational companies and the super-rich at the expense of ordinary working class people.
Time and again, striking workers told Militant Left members that they had waited for this opportunity for a long time, too long. The majority were taking strike action for the first time ever. The pickets at the hospitals were a sight to behold. Hundreds and hundreds of workers poured onto the picket lines – marching up and down the pavements, while drivers and members of public cheered and beeped their car horns in support.
Ciarán McKenna, SIPTU NEC and Militant Left member said the day after Oct 14: “Yesterday was a momentous day to be a trade unionist. It was a privilege to take part in strike action to defend the living standards of public sector workers….In our SIPTU section there has been zero, and I really mean ‘zero’, pushback against taking strike action. Instead, there is a huge and palpable determination to fight this for as long as it takes.”
The mass strike involved public sector workers, yet it was a strike for all workers. And was treated as such by the enormous enthusiasm garnered from the wider working class.
The arrogance of the government, who had let the previous public sector deal come to an end in June with nothing to put in its place, was exposed for all to see.
Government ministers had arrogantly dismissed trade unions’ demand to make pay top of the agenda. They demanded that workers wait until the new talks about the next public sector agreement began sometime in the autumn. This created not only huge anger, but also the space to move to ballot for strike action on pay.
By the end of August and early September, trade unions were announcing unprecedented support for strike action. SIPTU and Fórsa members – the two largest unions in Ireland – voted by a huge 97% to strike. INMO, the biggest health workers union, voted by an incredible 99% to strike. The largest teachers’ union returned a 95% vote for action. And so it went on.
Decades of partnership working between unions, employers and the government was suspended in mid-air.
The action began with a work to rule from September 30th. The government twiddled its thumbs, perhaps naively concluding that the trade union leaders would find a way to call off the national action and enter talks. They could not have been more wrong. A power had been unleashed, not only against the government, but also applying enormous pressure on the tops of the trade unions as well.
Too little, too late, the bosses’ government of FiannaF/Fine Gael realised that the action would go ahead. On the eve of the strike the minister pleaded with the unions to call of the strike. “Pay will be top of the agenda” in any talks, he pledged.
Well aware that there is another strike looming on 21 October, the government commented the day after: “Our message to public servants is straightforward: there is funding available for a new agreement, and government is ready to engage immediately and constructively.”
Talks will now likely take place. Trade unions are in a position of real strength and nothing less than inflation-plus pay deal, and for wage rises to automatically rise with inflation, should be insisted on. Otherwise strike action should be continued and escalated until these justified calls are conceded.
These and other ideas were among the central messages that Militant Left took to scores of picket lines across the country. The headline of our strike bulletin was Enough is Enough! And it summed up the mood of the vast majority that we spoke to. Our members were on strike themselves of course. And those who were not public sector workers spent the day on the picket lines anyway.
Militant Left members visited over 150 picket lines, including Letterkenny, Cork City, Drogheda, Dundalk, Dublin City, Tallaght, Balbriggan, Swords, Ballymun, Sligo, Manorhamilton, Monaghan and beyond.
We not only brought our solidarity, but we also raised the need for the trade unions to build its own political voice in the form of a mass working-class party, and for a socialist society to replace rotting capitalism.
We distributed over 4,000 copies of our strike bulletin. Militant Left members also played a key role in helping to mobilise a NIPSA trade union delegation from the North who brought solidarity greetings and support to workers on the picket lines in the South.
The trade union movement and the working class is a mighty force. Wednesday 14 October proved that beyond any doubt. A turning point has been reached. And alongside workers and young people in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy and across Europe, a new power is standing tall.