Minimum wage cut a green light for employers offensive
Union leadership must rise to the challenge of attack on workers’ right and conditions
Opening today’s press conference Cllr. Richard Boyd Barrett, People Before Profit and United Left Alliance candidate for Dun Laoghaire commented: “Yesterday we saw the ridiculous spectacle of some of the highest paid people in this country lecturing the lowest paid about how they have to accept another pay cut on top of the Universal Social Charge, changes to the tax bands, reduction in Child Benefit.
"This is a green light by the government for an employer’s offensive. The attack on the minimum wage combined with social welfare cuts and the incorporation of the low paid into the tax net is part of a wider agenda of forcing wages down and ensuring that the ‘race to the bottom’ is actively facilitated. But we need to be very clear about this. We can resist these cuts. We are calling on trade union leaders to provide real leadership on the issue and to fight to defend the wages of its lowest paid members.”
