Jack o Connors qualifications

I don't think his education, or lack of it, is the issue. There are plenty of smart people who left school early but learned their trade/business hands on.
 
Niall M said:
That was funny, no paycuts or reductions in numbers, but he can still reduce the paybill!!!! is the programme repeated on line anywhere, i missed alot of it?
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it'll be on rte.ie on their I-Player.

It kille em that the unions get so much media attention in this country...they are on the radio/tv and in the papers every day without fail. They represent 20% of all workers (prob more now given the private sector people has lost 200k jobs)...they're no more representative of the country's workers as a whole than the Seanad. And given the amount of EU/National laws on working conitions etc, is there a need for them in the modern age to the degree they now try to influence the state???
And if they are going to be all over the media, can they not get someone who the public might take to....i.e. not Liam Doran/Jack O'Connor/any of the disgraced FAS directors

Arthur Scargill on the right hook last week- as left wing, communist even, as you'll get. Asked several times by Ger Gilroy (another leftie but fair play to him, he kept going after Scargill), did he think union leaders were overpaid in Ireland. He even cited 1 of the teachers unions here where the leader gets 170k and has something like 60k member, while his equivalent in England gets 220k stg and has over 1 million members.
All Scragill kept repeating is that it's up to the members of the union to set the wages for the head of the union...now I may be wrong but is it not a remuneration committee or something similar that would set the wages, the average union member would'nt vote as such on something like this. So just like the banks, a few colleagues who you work closely with every day set your wages!!!!
And having worked in the public sector myself for years, I can only imagine the expenses the union heads would be on in addition to their salaries...(and no, I don't get expenses)
 
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I thought Pat Kenny did a fantastic job last night and Jack O'Connor was absolutely clueless, and was exposed as such.

When pushed on the numbers he invariably had to fall back on "I don't know the exact numbers", "I'm not qualified to say", and when they did start working out the details of where they'd find the 4 billion they got up to about half a billion and then ... poof, nothing - the plan appears to be we stop everything in October of every year, hide in a hole with our eyes closed and our hands over our ears until January rolls around and they can start spending again.
 
Purple said:
I don't think his education, or lack of it, is the issue. There are plenty of smart people who left school early but learned their trade/business hands on.
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Exactly.

Bottom line is, as a minimum 'qualification' for the job this guy should be reasonably intelligent, articulate and well informed and he fails badly in all these areas IMO.
 
I can understand the antipathy towards Jack O'Connor but you have to remember that's he's representing the interests of those who pay his salary.

The idea that he should be required to speak rationally and act in the best interests of the State is not really consistent with his job spec. The social partnership concept has been shown up to the white elephant it (nearly) always was. Union leaders ultimately serve their members, not the state.

I suspect that in reality he's an intelligent man and that he know's well the writing is on the wall for his members. He can't come out and say it though. He's obliged to stay in the ring and slug it out for as long as he can. His members pay him to do just that. The requirement to make sense is secondary.
 
Purple said:
I don't think his education, or lack of it, is the issue. There are plenty of smart people who left school early but learned their trade/business hands on.
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I dont think his education or lack of it is the issue either,however I do think that it says something about the man.
I would also question how Smart the man is who leads in such an appalling manner..
 
Caveat said:
Anyone know what O'Connor's house is like? I hope for his sake it's a 2 up 2 down in the Liberties or something.

Surely to jaysus even he wouldn't be so stupid as to make a comment like that if he had a 'fancy' house himself too.

Surely...
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Wonder what he spends all his huge salary on ,if thats the case..
And if he did live in a two up two down,others may consider that a trophy house,espically those who have lost their homes.
He may end up eating those words..
 

Lest we forget this. Problem is he should be thinking of the country and it's greater good. In the current climate, if he has any i.q, he must realise he has responsibilities to the country. If someone has a role to be played they have responsibilities to do what is right. Maybe it's just his own salary he is thinking of saving and believes he has to be seen to be saying this nonsense to protect it. He is no economist thats for sure.
 

In fairness to him though, in his official capacity he doesn't have a remit to think of the country or greater good. He is there to represent his members.

For all we know he may actually agree with many statements on the greater good and the national need, but in public at least he has to put forward the representations of his members.
 
great picture of him in today's Irish Times, front page....very Stalinesque!!!
 
What do you expect from an elected representative of his union.He is not very articulate and goes in for the rambling time wasting blather so beloved of our elected political representatives. His educational qualifications are
completely irrelevant...nobody asks our politicians this question.
The real question people should be asking is why RTE didn`t put someone like joe higgins ther to defend workers rights.
The point that jack o connor was trying to say in his round about way ...was that public sector workers wouldn`t take a pay cut but would be amenable to tax increases.Of course this wouldn`t work because the tax increases would effect the private sector also.
I though that jacko connors answer to pat kennys question about trophy homes was very funny and Pat kenny shouldn`t have been so offended...after all it is common knowledge that he has a fine house!
 
 
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Delboy said:
great picture of him in today's Irish Times, front page....very Stalinesque!!!
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You know, I'm starting to get a bit disappointed with this thread. There's so much rope in terms of what O'Connor is saying to hang him on that we don't need to resort to the personal attacks.

He's just doing his job, he has a mandate from his members and their subscriptions pay for him to represent their views at a national level. Are the views out of touch and unreasonable? Well to me yes. Are the solutions "back of fag packet pub economics"? Again: yes. However, what's the point in questioning his education, etc?

I know the above quote seems a pretty minor observation, but I'm minded of the 80s when The Sun wanted to run a picture of Scargill that caught him in a moment with his hand raised. It of course looked like a Nazi Salute. However, the printers refused to run the picture and fair play to them the paper ran without a front page picture.

The thing is, the more those opposed to these measures and actions attack the individuals presenting them, the more you cement their support and the action.

Stick to the flaws in their plan and stick to the urgent need to introduce measures, not defer them indefinitely.

Though speaking of personal attacks, I still the the Kenny house quip was funny.
 
Sunny said:
And he wants to introduce a higher band of tax??

50% of income earners don't pay any tax? I am shocked at that I have to say

http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1103/exchequer.html
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Aggreed. A figure of 800,00 was mentioned last week of the number of low earners that pay no income tax at all. This does not seem sustainable in an economy.
Maybe there will be no change in tax rates but movement of the tax bands to bring more people in to the tax net.
 
An apology for the Trophy house remark,was apparently left with a researcher by JackO
 
 
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