VOTE NO to Lisbon Treaty

national | eu | press release Friday March 28, 2008 14:55 by I.W.U. PR Dep. - Independent Workers' Union

Workers Rights Must be Protected

The Independent Workers’ Union urges all Trade Union member’s and Workers to campaign on behalf of a NO VOTE in the forthcoming E.U. Constitution referendum, now known as the ‘Lisbon Treaty’.
This Treaty poses a major threat to workers’ and personal freedoms. The I.W.U. and other European Trade Unions are very concerned at the potential annihilation of workers’ rights, pay and conditions by a number of concerning anti-Trade Union/anti-Workers measures contained within the Treaty.

Independent Workers Union

The Lisbon Treaty; already rejected by voters in France and Holland, will effectively create a European ‘super-state’, with the effective loss of National sovereign power. This in affect will draw Ireland into a ‘common E.U. defence policy’, which demands a greater ‘defence commitment’, meaning Ireland MUST increase its military spending under E.U. law, and further taking much needed funds away from heath-care, and social housing.
“They will now have a duty to represent the interests of the Union (E.U.), not the interests of the member state.” Gisela Stuart, Labour MP
Through the proposed E.U. treaty, multinational companies and corporations can act outside the laws of the host country. This effectively means that a Latvian company can operate in Ireland and not pay the Irish minimum wage, but rather the minimum wage of Latvia, which currently stands at less the €0.90 an hour. We have already seen Irish ferries uproot and re-register abroad and replace Irish crews with cheaper labour from elsewhere.
This Treaty will undermine and make redundant any pay, paid-holidays and conditions secured over years of struggle by workers in Ireland and other member states. This scandalous eroding of workers rights under the term the ‘free movement of services’ is secured under the new E.U. Lisbon Treaty. The Independent Workers’ Union prefers to use the more correct description as the ‘free movement of exploitation.’ This E.U. objective will not only erode the rights, pay and conditions of the workers, but does not guarantee the right to strike.
A submission to the E.U. Court of ‘Justice’ has stated ‘that collective action –which includes strike action- is not a fundamental E.U. right, and that rights guaranteeing free movement (of business) within the single market (E.U.) are more important.’
The Irish people will be the only Nation voting in Europe on the Lisbon Treaty, and the Independent Workers’ Union would like to remind the Irish people that workers rights and human rights of over 450 million people are at stake. This can not be viewed as typical E.U. progress, as we will indubitably hear.
This must be a firm NO to;
- Worker exploitation
- NO to a ‘Super-State’, meaning an end to self-autonomy
- NO Privatisation of Transport- NO to increased military spending and commitment