Addressing the SIPTU Manufacturing Division Conference ‘Innovation in Manufacturing – A Driver for Jobs and Growth’ in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin, Jack O'Connor said his union was proposing "constructive engagement in a tripartite project group" which "should be charged with driving the process of making Ireland the site of choice for the factories of the future".
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He said the new initiative would seek to increase dialogue between all stakeholders in the manufacturing sector with the aim of increasing its scale and workforce expertise.
Indicating the example of worker and management co-operation in other European economies, such as Germany, which have weathered the recession better than Ireland, Jack O'Connor added: "We in the trade union movement must contribute to a qualitative transformation in the dynamics of workplace organisation so that the places in which our members work become the sites of choice for investment and innovation."
In her address to the conference EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan Quinn, said she was "pleased that Ireland's largest trade union is so clearly giving the message that innovation is our key weapon in the fight to promote jobs and growth".
The EU Commissioner outlined her work at European level overseeing schemes such as the FP7 programme which will provide €55 billion between 2007 and 2013 for research and technological development projects.
(CD)
