The recent report by the High-Level Group on Collective Bargaining is an opportunity for the trade union movement, and for workers seeking to collectively organise and unionise. It will absolutely not solve the declining density and power of the movement, but if made use of it may present an additional […]
Trade Unionism
Time for leadership and clear demands
A call to action for communist and progressive trade unionists The cost-of-living crisis—or, as the CPI more accurately describes it, the cost of greed—is now hitting working people hard throughout the country. It is time for clear demands from the trade union movement, and the leadership to win. But rest […]
Does militant union pay bargaining increase class-consciousness?
In the July Voice, Nicola Lawlor proposed that “individual unions should concentrate on… strengthening themselves and militantly pursuing big pay claims.” She argues that unions should not be “remov[ed from] pay bargaining [at the workplace] site of struggle and mobilisation.” Localised bargaining is “an instrument… for increasing class-consciousness and militancy […]
What is the trade union movement fighting for?
An interesting but not entirely new debate has begun in Socialist Voice in recent issues on the question of “social partnership” and national wage agreements. On the one hand, Jimmy Doran has condemned “social partnership” outright as class betrayal, with strong statements that it is anti-democratic, embodies insider dealing, […]
OPINION: National wage agreements: Another view
National wage agreements with a private-sector aspect may re-emerge, given the current social costs of capitalism (the “cost-of-living crisis”). Within the CPI contributors have put forward hostile assessments of wage agreements—see Jimmy Doran, “Social partnership? No, thanks” (Socialist Voice, July 2020) or “Talk given by Graham Harrington from the Communist […]
Workers’ world
On 12 May the Local Authority Professional Officers’ (LAPO) section of SIPTU adopted a motion calling for a constitutional referendum to enshrine public ownership of water services in the Constitution of Ireland, to counter the threat of the privatisation of water services. LAPO organises approximately 2,000 local authority professional officers […]
Build working-class power
The Trade Union Left Forum announced on May Day that it is near to completing a draft bill to restore rights lost to workers as a result of anti-union legislation dating from the 1940s. The TULF has been campaigning against the Industrial Relations Act (1990) and also anti-worker legislation in […]
Trade unions call for control of Covid
A growing number of trade unions are joining the call for measures to control the increasing numbers being infected by the omicron variant of covid. At the end of March the general secretary of the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation, Phil Ní Shéaghdha, in a letter to the ICTU, explained […]
A Workers’ Rights Act Now!
At the recent biennial delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions a motion from Dublin Council of Trade Unions was passed to seek alternative legislation to restore all rights lost as a result of the Industrial Relations Act (1990). The 1990 act was a direct result of the […]
Inequality kills
Before covid-19, “normal” was homelessness, a two-tier health service, waiting-lists, precarious work, poverty pay, no sickness pay, a gig economy, pension-age extensions, lack of workers’ rights, exploitation, bogus self-employment and inequality for the majority of people in Ireland while the parasitic elite profiteered off this misery. “Back to normal” must […]
Green shoots
As we leave behind 2021 and the continuing pandemic, some green shoots have appeared on the industrial front. Workers at Dunne’s Stores represented by Mandate have received a 10 per cent pay increase, which could only have been dreamed about a couple of years ago. Unite had significant victories, securing […]
Where to now for union organising and bargaining?
This article will update readers on a couple of interesting and important developments for unionised workers in both the South and the North of Ireland. Two position papers have been published in the last couple of months on union recognition, collective bargaining, and the right to organise, and one piece […]
Workers Demand their Rights
The Trade Union Left Forum has been campaigning for the last four years to have the restrictions on workers’ rights contained in the Industrial Relations Act (1990) abolished. At the biennial delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in October this campaign took a step closer to achieving […]
“On time, on budget, and in scope”
The production process of computer games hides the built-in exploitation of both workers and customers Games workers in Ireland and all over the world have begun unionising. First of all they established their own Game Workers Unite, a loose movement of workers internationally; this has since developed in a number […]
Anti-union legislation must go
Low pay is defined by the OECD as the pay of a full-time worker whose earnings are below two-thirds of a country’s median income. The proportion of workers on low pay ranges from 4 per cent in Belgium to 24 per cent in the United States. The Republic, at 23 […]
Women workers and the trade union movement
The trade union movement is an integral part of Irish society and as such reflects how society sees women workers. It affects how the historical role of women as primary care-givers in the home can muddy the waters when it comes to equal pay, gender equality, and smashing the glass […]