Industrial action in the public sector begins on 30 September. Two strike days are scheduled – 14 & 21 October. More are planned. Following massive votes for strike action, public sector workers are moving onto the offensive. This is the most significant campaign of industrial action in almost 40 years. One, which if it happens, will rock the political and capitalist establishment.
It is also a test of the trade union movement and a test for workers. Even at the height of austerity and the relentless series of attacks on public sector workers between 2009-2015, there was no fightback on this scale. What has changed?
Cost-of-living crisis
There are two connected changes. First, the cost-of-living crisis, driven by persistent high inflation, is acting in tandem with an endemic housing crisis to push living standards down for all but the top 10% of wage earners. There is a wage standstill across the economy which affects hundreds of thousands in the public sector. A 3% pay rise is eaten up instantly by inflation running at 3.5%. Workers can feel themselves falling behind. Every gas and electricity bill is higher than the last one; every trip to the supermarket costs more each time; with no end in sight. Indeed, worse may well be on the cards as the full implications of Trump’s war on Iran are felt in the global economy.
The second change appears to be in the government’s attitude towards their own workers. In 2022 the mere threat of a ballot for industrial action was sufficient to kickstart talks on a revision of the public sector pay deal then in force. This time the government has allowed the last deal to lapse and is clearly in no hurry to open negotiations on a successor. Nor do the massive votes for strike action seem to have had an impact. Why is this?
State-business alliance to keep wages down
It is no exaggeration to say that Micheál Martin’s government marches in lockstep with the bosses’ cartel IBEC when it comes to government policy towards workers. IBEC appear, to all intents and purposes, to be able to dictate to the government on issues such as trade union rights, sick pay for workers and pay policy. No one votes for IBEC but a hard core of ideologically motivated cranks, who have an intense hatred for workers and unions, dominate this cartel who, in turn, lay down the law to the elected government.
‘Left Alternative’ parties will not support public sector strike action
One other element is the lack of vocal political support for public sector industrial action from the political parties who, we are led to believe, form an embryonic ‘left alternative’. Clearly scared by any potential media smear campaign and looking towards government at some point in the future with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael; Sinn Fein, Labour and the Social Democrats appear to have lost their tongues as the largest wave of industrial action in several generations is imminent.
Exposing how, when tensions rise and contradictions sharpen to the point of social conflict, these organisations do not and will not stand with working people. No doubt they are having intensive ‘behind closed doors’ meetings with IBEC and other business interests ‘reassuring’ them that they remain ‘pro-business’. That is, in favour of keeping wages low with no limit on profits.
Even if, as is possible, the planned industrial and strike action does not proceed, the votes recorded in August and September mark a massive step forward. The public sector is the last bastion of the trade union movement in the South, where density levels are higher and workplace organising is widespread and effective. We are not going back to the artificial social ‘peace’ that held prior to Summer 2026.
Other workers will move into struggle
Militant Left will be standing with public sector workers on this field of struggle. Our members will be on picket lines, on strike committees and fighting for the maximum return for workers. The political establishment have gotten used to ‘industrial peace’ while they wage, often unopposed, their brutal class war on the working class. Regardless of how this present situation resolves itself, a marker has been laid down. Other workers’ sights will be raised.
The prospect of other struggles erupting across the private and semi-state sectors is almost certain. Hundreds of thousands of workers on picket lines across the country, many for the first time, will send a powerful signal to the working class.
No more austerity era ‘reforms’
An ‘Inflation+’ pay award, that protects workers’ incomes from inflation, is the very baseline that must emerge from this campaign of action. Protections against outsourcing and AI implementation are key, too. After the devastation to terms and conditions between 2009-2014 the trade union movement must firmly reject any more ‘reforms’ that the government demands. Instead, the return of long-term sick leave, annual leave entitlements and other conditions attacked during austerity must be demanded.
Workers need a party that will stand with us in struggle
Finally, outside of the small left forces in the Dáil no political party stands unequivocally with public sector workers at this point. As we face another capitalist crisis the need for a a mass party of the working class – grows more urgent. Thousands of workers will come out of this process with any illusions they had in the Irish government totally shattered. They will be looking for answers, political answers. Militant Left believes the campaign of industrial action in the public sector marks the first real crack in the consensus in the South. There is a real chance to lay the foundations for a political force based on the working class and unions to face the challenges ahead. Victory to the Workers!
