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Unions: Lord, make us angry — but not yet
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RTE headline: Gardaí vote to take industrial action.
Which sounds ominous. Except that when you read on, (1) only half of the eligible pool botherered to vote at all, (2) of those who did, the majority voted for work-to-rule type measures, and (3), “the [Garda Representative] Association will decide at its annual conference in April what form that industrial action will take.”
In other words, 2 months from now, they might have a plan not to answer their mobile phones, or something.
By then, Brian Cowen will have another love-in with Barack Obama, he’ll have celebrated with the rugby team again, there could be delegations from Greece, Italy, and the Iberian peninsula coming to figure out how we stayed out of the bond market cross-hairs, and FF could well be up towards 30 percent in the polls. Oh, and since the UK media will then be discussing the possibility of a Lazarus act by Gordon Brown, that narrative will quickly travel over here. Apparently the only one in Irish public life in a hurry to do anything was George Lee.
Loud noises from P J Stone tonight but only threats–will other unions follow suit????have they all had a reality check????? or just announcing “this far and no farther”
Does no one believe in the moral imperative that Army and Gardai, defenders of the state and of law and order, should be above industrial action? There has been no discussion I have heard where the basis of army/ police treason has been explored.
The citizenry are understandably jaded and cynical because of the ways so many politicians have morally corrupted themselves and politics.They therefore would probably not be surprised if the very TDs or even Judiciary, never mind the Gaurds,went on strike for better terms. But also do we take civil order for granted too much in comfortable suburbia where middle opinion is formed?
Were there to be real civil unrest pouring from the margins of Irish society into sleepy disengaged mortgageville,then we would see an awakening of fundamental views and a clamour for the gardai to honour to their oath of duty to society.
To be fair I believe most gardai take that oath seriously and i also doubt the veracity of that 90+% vote.