SIPTU President Jack O'Connor has said the stage has been set for confrontation because of, what he described as, the Government's slash and burn, Thatcherite policies.
Addressing his union's centenary conference in Tralee, he said workers had been left with no alternative but to mount the most effective resistance possible to the pay-cutting agenda across the economy and savage cuts in public spending.
Mr O’Connor said it was clear the Government intended to make working people carry the lion's share of the €4 billion economic adjustment in the forthcoming budget.
He said SIPTU believes there is no viable alternative to an agreement between all parties on a better fairer way.
However, he stressed he was not talking about woolly words and cuddly concepts like the myth of social partnership.
Mr O’Connor warned that any potential national agreement for economic recovery must contain a social dividend, including a strategy for universal pension provision.
He told delegates that the unions' campaign of opposition to the Government's policies would not be suspended unless and until what he called terms worthy of consideration by union members emerge.
Pay rises unrealistic before 2011 - IBEC
Earlier, employers' group IBEC has said that any expectation of pay increases before 2011 is unrealistic.
IBEC Director General Danny McCoy called on the Government to convene the social partners for what he called a final effort to conclude an agreement on national recovery.
Unions have already announced a campaign of national protest, including industrial action, to force the Government to spread the burden of €4bn in cuts away from workers.
Unions called off a previous protest campaign last spring to enter partnership talks, which subsequently stalled.
