The ICTU Biennial Conference takes place in Kilkenny on July 4th-6th when hundreds of trade union representatives from across the island come together to engage in discussion and renewal. The theme of our conference is ‘Making Work Pay – Unions Transforming Work and Workplaces’, three days for delegates to debate and focus on the key priorities for workers in Ireland over the next 24 months.
The Conference is set against a background of challenges for workers in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.
General Secretary Owen Reidy said the “cost of living crisis has hit workers and their families hard. Rising rents, mortgage uncertainty, and the cost of food and home heating have left many workers struggling. That is why in the Republic we have demanded that the Irish government start to build the social wage to make our public services more accessible and affordable for citizens, we have seen a start to this in Budget 2023 but only a start”.
Owen Reidy said, “Collective Bargaining combined with the recent EU adequate minimum wages directive has the potential to transform industrial relations in the interests of workers in a major way, but this EU Directive on Collective Bargaining must be transposed into law by 2024”. The LEEF High-Level Report in which my predecessor Patricia King played a significant role has been agreed upon by Government and Ibec, the employers’ organisation.
There is also an appetite among employees to benefit from union membership and representation in the workplace, the public mood has changed in favour of collective bargaining and a recent survey found that 44% of those not in a union would like to be in one”.
Congress President Kevin Callinan said, "At our Biennial Delegate Conference, as Congress President, I will be announcing a couple of major initiatives aimed at placing trade union issues and values at the canter of public discourse — especially amongst younger non-union members. In addition, I will be setting out some concrete ways in which we can strengthen the movement by sharing our resources more effectively."
The union movement across the island has been a tale of two experiences. In Northern Ireland public service unions have been taking industrial action to secure decent pay increases. Assistant
General Secretary Gerry Murphy has been at the forefront of the Workers Demand Better campaign and added “We are in the middle of an unprecedented wave of strikes and industrial action in the face of a stubborn Tory government in London determined to make ordinary workers pay the price of their economic incompetence. Right now, in the absence of a functioning NI Executive and Assembly accountable to the people of Northern Ireland, we are on our own in this confrontation with this uncaring and irresponsible Tory administration. But we have the support of the majority of people here, and support for ongoing industrial action is huge and inspiring.
“We need a fair settlement of the NI budget and fair pay settlements for workers across public services and workers on low wages across the private sector. We need the restoration of the institutions of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, whose 25th anniversary we have been marking this year. We need a new deal, with meaningful structures of social dialogue and we need the basis of a better industrial landscape, with collective bargaining the norm rather than the exception.”
