Pat Rabbitte's speech to the Jim Larkin Summer School elaborates a little on how the party might alter its stance on social partnership.
Essentially they are agreements between the government of the day, the employers and the ‘democracy of producers’. While various bodies representing the voluntary and community sector are now part of the process it is the triad of unions, employers and government that determines the fundamental shape of any package that emerges from the talks. What is missing from the equation are the ‘other two democracies’ - the democracy of consumers and the ‘supreme democracy’ of the citizen.
The current model fails to meet some significant challenges and the agenda has moved well beyond the earlier emphases on trading of wage moderation for tax cuts. There are now myriad social policy issues that effect people as citizens and consumers rather than as just producers. Thus Rabbitte implicitly recognises that the that the base of social partnership is too narrow, rooted mainly in the public sector and certain other highly skilled workers elsewhere. His reference to the recent CSO data on trade union membership underlines this point. He also pointedly refers to
The great mass of unskilled or semi-skilled workers that Larkin brought into the mainstream of trade unionism and Irish public life are back on the margins. Ironically the current social partnership model means that the Labour Party is both sidelined and restricted when it comes to championing the rights not just of trade unionists but all workers.
Then there is the question of democratic legitimacy. Rabbitte wants to place the process of social partnership firmly under the aegis of the Oireachtas, and take it away from the chosen elites of business, unions and the voluntary sector. Some Trade Unionists and IBEC figures have predictably evinced some scepticism about Rabbitte's ideas but are careful to confine their criticisms to practical arguments rather then challenge them at the level of principle.
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