By Finn McKenna
Irish society is facing one of the largest public sector strikes in the history of the state. Teachers unions, nurses unions, civil Service Unions and others spent most of August and September balloting their members for strike action. All unions balloted have returned supermajorities in favour of strike action. In the TUI (Teachers Union of Ireland) it was 97%; Forsa, 96.6%; ASTI, 95%; and INMO, a whopping 99%.
The strike action that looms will have an enormous impact on society. Schools will be shut down, many non-essential medical appointments will be cancelled, and the European Union presidency’s schedule of events in Dublin will likely be disrupted – a potential real blow to the prestige of the political ruling-class of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Schools being shut down will result in many private sector workers taking the day off to mind their children. Disruptions to everyday life will be huge. The scheduled disruptions are not wily-nily actions of wreckers who “want to hold the country to ransom” but are the cry of trade union workers who keep this country afloat and are at breaking point.
How did we get here?
The convulsions of the world market, in part shaped directly by imperialist wars, in part shaped by price gouging and manipulation by the corporate and financial giants of world capitalism, have railroaded runaway inflation for several years. The cost-of-living crisis should be renamed the cost-of-capitalism crisis.
Trump’s imperialist onslaught on Iran throttled the world energy supply chains. What happens to Iran reverberates to Oughterard in Galway. The fuel excise protests in the spring of this year demonstrated the pressure in society. The trade union leadership lambasted the actions of the blockaders. Undoubtedly, the far-right’s tentacles were all around the fuel protests. But what caused the chagrin of the trade union officialdom was the temerity of industrial actors behaving in a way that was outside of the framework of social partnership. Large scale disruptions by the rural blockaders yielded benefits and forced the government to sit down and talk with them.
At the 2026 FÓRSA national conference, it was declared that there are now 100,000 members of FÓRSA. This milestone was significant. What should be noted is the servile warm gathering that the FÓRSA leadership bequeathed on to the Taoiseach, and the unfortunate applause that around half of the conference delegates gave him upon his arrival. The partnership mindset between unions and government is a hangover that is hard to shake-off. However, in a context where the government are refusing to even negotiate and consider pay rises, even these union leaders are forced to act.
What is the strike about?
€9.2 billion is the projected government surplus this year. Much of this money comes from windfall taxes linked to the complex tax dodging of multinationals, which is largely not a sustainable source of income. However, it does indicate the huge wealth and profits that are there being made via Ireland’s tax haven model. This is at at time that workers in Ireland are in the midst of a social crisis storm, ranging from healthcare, childcare, housing and pay. Seven out of 10 under 25s indicate that they see no future in this country.
Many of the union officialdom would prefer the government to rush towards negotiations, they are not putting forward concrete demands to address the cost of living and for inflation-busting pay rises. It is crucial that arguments are made for these, not just a demand for a place at the negotiation table.
We believe that strike action is imperative from the viewpoint of wresting a meaningful deal from this government; that if the strike days on the 14th and the 21st materialise, that will bring with them huge pressure on the government. This must be linked to a broader programme for wider industrial action. Fianna Fáil is reeling from bungling the fuel excise protests, especially in the early days of that dispute.
Strike action is also crucial for workers having a sense of our latent economic (and political) power. When workers go on strike, higher bonds are formed amongst all those on strike. Civil servants being on strike the same day as teachers would help crystallise a sense of solidarity, i.e. our interests align, and we have nothing in common with the state as our employer or any Big Business employers.
If these strikes go ahead, mud would inevitably be slung at striking workers – with the government and the status quo mouthpieces deriding the strike as selfish, holding the country to ransom, and perhaps most poisonously – trying to wedge divisions between public and private sector workers, as was the playbook shortly after the 2008 crash.
We say;
- Public sector workers (and all workers) need to have inflation-busting pay rises
- Strike Committees need to be democratically decided in all workplaces, and in-person meetings must take place in all workplaces to discuss the strike and industrial action’s progression and strategy.
- Adhere to the work-to-rule, which begins on the 30th September.
- All workers should respect their picket lines, as maximum unity will yield maximum reward for all public sector workers.
- The strikes on 14 and 21 October must go ahead if, as expected, the government digs its heels in. This must be the starting point for a programme of wider industrial action and roll out strikes.
