The Prices Norm Con Trick

setting up of a Prices Council to recommend is even more comy.

Below we look at the record cf these objective sages.

Dr Dermot Mc Aleese is the leading apologist for the Industrial Development Authority, an employers’ organisation which has often called for wage restraint. McAleese, however, does not confine himself to Ivory Tower theorising.

Not so long ago he took an active part in the Review Body on Teachers’ Pay -a supposedly ‘objective’ institution similar to the. Prices Council. The Review Body was supposed to recommend a ALCAN:

ating the whole ‘revolution’. it was in this atmosphere that the then Minister for Labour, Mr Gene Fitz-, | island -1 | tings of his colleagues and the mass media would be vindicated.

To make sure, the members of the trib. € ri Jie = James Sr f.oee Sr § Masia. Lrmoerack pay norms is a poor joke The ‘three wise men’ - Dr Mc Aleese, TJ Baker and Prof Brendan Walsh -have much in common with the fabled monkeys who hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Such purity of mind is too good to be true.

wage increase for teachers to compensate for a 30% decline in income over the past decade relative to other sectors of the public services.

It recommended a paltry 7% increase.

Even Mr Wilson (the then Minister for Education) was embarrassed. So he topped up the award to 12%. Wilson certainly wasn’t breaking his heart - or the bank.

How did McAleese react? He was so ‘honest’ and ‘objective’ that he resigned in disgust and accused the Minister of encouraging ‘irrational’ and ‘intemperate’ wage claims! TJ BAKER is one of those ‘intellectuals’ who stretches out one hand in friendship while holding a knife behind his back in the other. Baxer is an economist with the Economic and Social Research Institute, a government sporisored body! Despite assumdefinite, pro-employer and pro-government attitude to wages.

An ESRI review of incomes policy (part of a major review of the Irish economy in the 80’s) concludes: The direction that incomes policy must take in the medium term is a positive (?) one, leading to increased profitability of Irish industry. Without the positive commitboth sides of industry, they will be ‘social partners’ in name only.

(Irish Economic Policy, p 263) ing a liberal image, the ESRI has a very Tot make it untrue’.

ment to profitability and growth by It is not surprising to find, therefore, that Baker is a long standing member of the “wage freeze’ school. In a contribution to a trade union symposium in 1975 he argued that a pay pause “by holding down labour costs would improve the competitiveness of Irish industry, leading to the prospect of higher exports and a greater share of the domestic market’. He adds endearingly: “T he mere fact that this point has beens stressed ad nauseam by the employers organisations, the Central Bank and the Government itself does In other words: workers, wake up, and listen to the words of your betters!

BRENDAN WALSH is perhaps Ireland’s best known practising economist. He too originated in the ESRI.

Walsh’s aiea of expertise is demography - population control to be exact. As Walsh sees it the problem of unemployment is not too few jobs but too many survey of PA International(an econon workers. The solution therefore is to get rid of the surplus hands. Accordingly, he recommends to the government ‘a less negative attitude to emigration, recognising the major role it will probably play in raising the living standards of the Irish people’. All very fine ... for those who are left! Pay policy is not Walsh’s best subject; nevertheless, he has words of wisdom to contribute. National Wage Agreements, he argues, by giving more money to the low paid have made labour saving machinery more economic, leading to unemployment. So it would be in the interests of the low paid to stay low paid. And of course it wouldn’t do the employers any harm either. Well, there you have the ‘three wise men’. No prizes for guessing what kind of pay norms they will come Unemployed A staggering 109,153 workers orl83 per cent of the labour force-are now unemployed in the six counties.As ws the Nationalist community is the worst hit. Appalling unemployment rates exist in Strabane(36%), Dungannon(31%), Cookstown(31%), Newry(29%), Derry (29%) and Limavady(26.9%).

Male unemployment has reached 239 and female unemployment, now at 1. is accelerating rapidly. Nearly a fifth of those without jobs are under 19 years of age. The proportion of long term unemployed within the total is also rising steadily In short, the poor, the oppressed, anc , the exploited are bearing the brunt o! economic crisis. But even the above figures do not reveal the full extent of deprivation inflicted on certain sections of the community. A recent report by the Belfast consultancy firm ‘Cooper and Lybrand reveals that in Nationalist areas such as the Falls Road and the Ardoyne, unemployment has reached 50% and 40% respectively.

Bad as the situation is at the moment worse has still to come.The Septembe research firm) reports that 40% of Northern firms expect to employ less workers next year; on average firms are using only’80% capacity; investment will fall 11% by next year Overall, the survey concludes that in the coming weeks and months, unex ployment will reach 22%.

At this rate, unemployment in the North will soon be twice the British average.

These figures emphasise the North's destiny as a pool of cheap labour witt in the so-called United Kingdom.in th context, the policy of the Northern Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions(NICTU) is totally bankrupt. Instead of trying to shore up the artificial status of the Northern state as part of the “U_K.”, the trade union movement should be pointing to an all-Ireland framework as the only basis for 2 real solution t both Catholic and Protestants worker endemic poverty

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ring peo lod But the claim that this Council, staffed by erp ‘intellectuals’ will produce ‘honest’ and ‘objective’ proposals