TRADE UNION DESK: A clarifying moment
The last six weeks have been a clarifying moment for many in the trade union movement, writes Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) General Secretary Owen Reidy.
As the tractors and trucks rolled onto O’Connell Street in mid-April 2026, parked up, and remained there, many of us with experience of disputes and industrial action watched on with interest to see how the Government would react. As hours turned into days, and blockades emerged on motorways and oil refineries, it became clear that this was to be a clarifying moment.
Consider a counterfactual: that a trade union in Dublin Airport has a dispute with the management there. Frustrated by the slow progress of industrial relations structures, they decide to block the airport and all motorways leading to it. Flights are cancelled. Passengers coming to and from the airport are forced to walk for miles with their luggage.
Would that blockade be allowed to remain for a week? Would it end with a €500 million handout for the workers who staged it?
The reality is that those workers would be arrested in the first hour, and by the second hour, unions would be threatened with legal proceedings and their funds being sequestered.
Workers who withdraw their labour must follow detailed procedures, give notice, and risk injunctions at every stage. When they do take action, they are told they are damaging the economy and inconveniencing the public. Yet when employers and business interests cause comparable or greater disruption, the response is indulgence and taxpayers’ money. The contrast could not be starker.
“Workers cannot be expected to absorb rising prices while the Government writes cheques to sectors that shout the loudest.”
The Government’s response to the fuel protests was the latest iteration of a double standard in Ireland. Government is quick to pander to businesses and employers, while workers watch on. Over the summer, the VAT cut for the hospitality industry, announced in October 2025 Budget, will come into effect. Costing taxpayers €750 million a year to support the likes of McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Caffè Nero, the policy was based on nothing more than anecdote and slick PR.
At the same time that VAT cut was announced, the Government was announcing that there would be no indexation of tax bands in Budget 2026, effectively eroding workers’ pay.
We are living in a time of full employment and budget surpluses, yet many workers – even those on decent pay – are struggling when it comes to the fourth week of the month, anxiously waiting for that next pay slip. Almost everyone is feeling the cost of living, but time and again, it is businesses and employers who are receiving handouts from the Government.
In laying bare that double standard, the Government’s response to the fuel protests has sent a clear message: might is right and disruption wins. The trade union movement has made note of this and will respond accordingly.
Good advocacy, good campaigning, and good research will be for nothing if we as unions do not recognise and use our economic power. We are economic actors, whether that is in the public, private, or semi-state sectors, and we will never be afraid to take action when it is strategic, appropriate, and necessary. That action is what the movement is based on.
The best response to a cost-of-living crisis is better pay, and our aspirations will not be modest. Before the war in Iran and the present spike in inflation, Congress was calling for pay increases in the private sector of between 4.7 and 6 per cent, where appropriate. Workers cannot be expected to absorb rising prices while the Government writes cheques to sectors that shout the loudest.
We will make sure that living standards are not eroded over time, and we will use every tool available to us to achieve that. In addition to pay bargaining, we will push the Government to use Budget 2027 to support the 2.4 million PAYE workers in Ireland. At a minimum, that means double tax indexation to make up for last year, and reductions in the cost of public transport.
Trade unions represent 800,000 workers across the island of Ireland. We have watched a Government that can find €500 million in days for those who block roads, but seems reluctant to protect workers’ living standards. That is not something the trade union movement will accept. We are not bystanders in this economy. We are the people who keep it running, and we will use the power we have to ensure that working people are not the ones left paying the bill for this Government’s choices.
The rules of engagement have changed. The union movement did not change them. But we have taken note.
Owen Reidy has been General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) since October 2022.
