SIPTU (Irelands Biggest Union) votes NO to Nice against Union leadership

["John O'Neill" <johnfergaloneill@xxxxxxxxxx>]

SIPTU vote a blow to unions' Yes stance
By Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent



  Trade union support for the Nice Treaty was undermined yesterday when
delegates to a SIPTU conference in Dublin called for its rejection. The vote
is likely to seriously embarrass leaders who are campaigning for a Yes vote.

Delegates to the Dublin regional conference voted by 184 votes to 134 to
oppose the treaty because "it opens the way to greater military intervention
and further economic liberalism".

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called on workers to vote Yes, while
SIPTU's national executive council endorsed that position earlier this week.

Proposing the motion that the treaty be opposed, Mr Kieran Allen of SIPTU's
education branch said there were three particular reasons for voting No.

The treaty was setting up the legal framework for a European army; it was
committed to promoting privatisation; and it was anti-democratic because it
gave more say to the EU's big powers.

Mr Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, who was invited to
address the conference, said the treaty was a step towards the creation of
an EU super-state.

This was challenged by another guest speaker, the Labour Party president, Mr
Proinsias De Rossa, who said trade unionists had nothing to fear from the EU
and everything to gain.

In the lively debate that ensued, a majority of speakers called for a
rejection of the treaty. Mr John Finney of the local authorities branch said
a Yes vote would mean the six big powers could outvote the other 21 states
in an enlarged Council of Ministers.

"Why are we having this debate today when a decision has already been
taken?" Mr Andrew McGuinness of the construction branch asked, referring to
the stance already adopted by the union's leadership.

Mr Cole claimed the vote was a clear indication that the trade union
movement may be out of step with its members. The ICTU, he said, had taken
members for granted in calling for a Yes vote.




© The Irish Times




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