Fighting The Wage Agreement

The impossibility of controlling prices under capitalism, especially in Ireland, has been amply demonstrated. Despite the strictest assurances by the National Coalition that prices would be halted, the latest report revealed that prices had in fact gone up by a record 17% in the first three months of this year. In this situation a third national wage agreement would be disasterous for the living standards of the working class. Nonetheless the Trade Union leaders we Oreberec 0 septate BnomM™er cent wae ST OTe a ee bureaucracy will projected negotiations.

SPONTAN ITY There can be no doubt that there o seething discontent among renk and fe trade eteoeests wrth the meagre resuits of pest Nemone! Wage ¥.

Agreements and in particular with the collaboration of the T,U, leadership and the employers. This has led to some dangerous illusions on the Left. There is a general feeling about, that although the T.U, bureaucrats will succeed in forcing a third agreement on the Trade Unions, that a struggle against this agreement will spontaniously break out all over the country.

Ths aptienistic feeling does not take sufficaent account of Te ree “euro of forces betwen Pe wort tg Chest On the one hard and the Foe Te ET DboyeErt anc trace UTOn leaders A look at the strike chart over the past few years reveals the full meaning of this, Although the number of trade disputes between 1969 and the end of 1972 remained aimost constant (134 in 1969, 131 mm 1972) the qumber of workers SwORVES of Struke actions, and the number of earlier this year decided to show its opposition, likelihood emerge in an uneven and A CLAUSE TO TRAP £2.50 for men !

of nearly two thirds, The number of lost man-days dropped from 935,900 days in 1969 to 206,955 days in 1972 — a fall of nearly 80% But even these figures do not tell the whole story. In addition to these statistics it is necessary to take into account, the real experience of the class struggle, It must be remembered that leading sections of the working class suffered severe defeats in their struggle against the second national wage agreement. The most important of these defeats was last years ESB strike. Here the trade union bureaucracy was successful in persuading the majority of the workers to pass the engineers pickets and even led some workers to take over their jobs, This episode represented the first major and open break with the militant traditions of solidarity, which are deeply ingrained in the Irish trade union movement, The result has been @ visable weakening of self-confidence among the most militant workers, Since then a whole series of strikes, including one not even directly challanging the N.W.A., have been easily squashed by the trade union bureaucracy.

Even the big unions outside the !.C.T.U. have been unable to find their feet against the tied, For instance the Marine Port and General Workers Union after splitting from Congress independence by announcing that it would no longer restrict its wage demands within the framework of the second national wage agreement. Shortly afterwards the ‘travellers’ in Williams and Woods organised by the M.P.G.W.U, put ina claim contravening the National Wage Agreement. However the Officials of the Workers Union of Ireland and the Irish Transport and General Workers Union formed a block against them, printing hundreds of leaflets for distribution to the ordinary workers and whipping up a sectarian attitude among them against the travellers, M.P.G,.W.U, fitters immediately stepped down without a murmur in face of this Given the prolonged lull in the class struggle in which serrous defests have been suffered ®t would be unwise and indeed dangerous of course possible, but, in view of the past two or three years experience, it will in ail uncordinated way which could be easily suppressed by the highly centralised alliance of government employers and trade union bureaucrats, THERE MUST BE A FIGHT! As part of an effort to prevent this, the task of socialists and trade union militants is not to sit The most obvious aspect of the current agreement which needs changing is the increment which workers received at the beginning of the agreement — £2.25 for women as compared to best be done by preparing a clear programmatic fight against the renewal of the National Wage Agreement.

At the moment there is considerable confusion over what should be the alternative to the National Wage Agreement. A simple return to collective bargaining will not be enough, Even with collective bargaining the government and employers, aided and abetted by the trade union leaders have been able to keep wages within limits tolerable to capitalist society. This is the real meaning of the fourteen: wage rounds preceeding the first National Wage Agreement. It would be still more futile to demand the government to redistribute the national income through taxation ‘policy and a control of prices as is suggested by Noel Harris of ASTMS in his recent pamphiet entitled “National Wage Agreements”. Even Noel Harris himself points out that the whole role of the government in wage negotiations is to ensure that the national ifcome is distributed unevenly in favour of the emp oyers. It is therefore not only, hopeless but also misleading to make such demands on a government that is so earnestly , dedicated to preserving capitalist society. As to controlling prices, this also is illusory. Again Harris himself refutes the possibility of doing this in © an open economy such as that of Ireland.

Anl that the Trade Union movement :

together, This is really the only programmatic alternative to national wage agreements which can pave the road for a new wave of class struggle on the economic and industrial front.

The government and employers argue that wage increases are responsible for price increases. Let this correct then there should be no more price increases.

But of course the government and employers don’t really want this. They want prices to go on rising and wages to stagnate, so that they can offset their falling rate of profit. That is why they want a cantinuation of the National Wage Agreement.

This fact gives the demand for a SLIDING :

SCALE OF WAGES 2a revolutionary dynamic. It is not an “unreasonable” demand. It corresponds to the present consciousness and experience of the workers. Yet the employers dare not accept it because it would mean their doom. Thus it leads to a fundamental clash between workers and employers, that is,to CLASS STRUGGLE.

deceive or demoralise the new wave of workers struggle which looms ahead, indication of the real nature of the Wage Agreement. The phrases “to abolish poverty” and “to increase the wages of the lower paid’’ means nothing and are exposed as hypocritical when related to the question of Equal Pay.

Oppositionists to the concept of a wage agreement can use the case of women workers as a typical

----- pull-quotes -----

power teers che Neste Cogteue, To Gee chee a mow for

om De other. The past national wage agreements onty halted wage increases, they also diffused

Pier fs Sn from inflation is by demanding « that price increases and wage increases be linked

theory be put to the test. Have an agreement where wages and prices rise similtaneously. If this theory is

Equipped with the slogan for a sliding _ ~~ scale of wages it will be difficult for” government, employers or bureaucracy to split,