Kevin Callinan – Presidential address to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Biennial Delegate Conference, 4 July 2023 in Kilkenny
Delegates and friends
Twenty months ago at the close of our last BDC in Belfast, I said that if we continued to fight yesterday's battles we would lose tomorrow's war. It would have been more accurate if I had said that if we continue to rely solely on yesterday's methods we will be ill-equipped to face our modern-day enemies.That is why I have been consumed during my term of office as President with the imperative of trade union renewal and I will come back to this theme and some of the key initiatives we’re taking in this area shortly.
However, given that the theme for this conference is Making Work Pay, it’s important that I – as Congress President – address the issue that is currently confronting workers and their families – north and south – namely the cost of living crisis and the need for pay rises to address this problem.
The context here is critical.
At a time of very healthy profits (for many companies) and buoyant public finances, the Irish Government is presiding over a significant fall in living standards due to rampant inflation in energy, food and other costs.And let’s be clear, many authoritative sources – even from within the European Central Bank – have acknowledged that excessive profits are the key driver of soaring inflation rates not wages. When the current inflationary problems hit, we were told initially by the powers-that-be that the spike in inflation would be temporary. When it wasn’t, then it was due to supply chain pressures and after that the war in Ukraine was blamed. Of course, the old chestnut of workers’ incomes being the problem is now being rolled out and we’re being warned about the risk of a wage/price inflationary spiral when what we’re actually experiencing is greedflation. Let me be very clear, workers and their families are the victims of inflation – they are not the cause.
Of course we know that inflation is an enemy but we cannot allow the current situation to continue whereby workers are bearing a disproportionate share of the burden while many companies profiteer.
Our movement has a responsibility to defend the living standards of ordinary people especially at a time when we are seeing a further shift in wealth from labour to capital after more than 40 years of drift in that direction.
We have seen the movement in the north take action on this issue with so many disputes taking place as workers stand up to the Tories.
As President of Congress, I am sending a clear message from this conference to Government and employers – north and south – that declining incomes in real terms will not be tolerated when the resources are clearly there to avoid it.
I know all of us in the trade union movement will work together to this end.
Returning to the trade union renewal agenda, I am sure that at times my colleagues on the Executive Council and within the Secretariat found my preoccupation with this issue irritating. But I assure you – and them – that it is driven by a genuine desire to recover lost ground and to position our movement at the forefront of the fight for better work, for improved working conditions and for social justice. Rather than see this challenge as one demanding some kind of ideological shift, that would in its wake bring an internally-focused debate on the merits or otherwise of the tactics involved, I view it as much more straightforward.
There is no one truth that will suddenly see us on the road to greater levels of density, workers’ power and industrial democracy. No, we must recognise that trade unions operate in different sectors and, in our case, two jurisdictions.
Almost always they are trying to do their best in the teeth of competing demands to respond effectively on behalf of and in the interests of members.
Creating the capacity to forward plan is always a struggle and a luxury most can't afford.
The urgent relegates the important.
I think that trying to achieve universal support for a particular overall strategy or course of action against this reality is folly.
Instead we should be encouraging unions to come together to work on the particular projects that appeal to them.
But on the understanding that the outputs are shared across the movement.
Not everything will be everyone else's priority.
There may also be differences of opinion.
But taken together as a whole, this approach represents the best chance of securing the changes necessary to arrest the overall decline in density and power.
As a result of the work that has commenced during the last two years, this conference should signal the start of our counter-offensive through much more active and sustained engagement in public discourse – focused especially on non-union younger people. One of our key initiatives in this regard will be to set up a Digital First Media Platform for the trade union movement to mirror in public discourse what the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) has done for the trade union movement in terms of economic policy and it would be ultimately be funded by member union contributions just like NERI. The Executive Council has now agreed to establish this editorially independent Unit — which would be staffed by unionised multimedia journalists — and its purpose will be to create media content which would be broadcast though existing social media platforms to the wider public.
It will have a particular focus on younger potential union members and activists and its aim is to drive union campaigns out to new audiences as well as providing a platform for union commentary and insights on key issues of public concern such as housing, health and anti-racism.
Another new development — also very much focused on engaging with younger people about unions as well as former union members — will be a major multi-media promotional campaign which will be launched this autumn.
While the content of this Congress campaign is currently being developed, it will be focused on the benefits of union membership for workers and its weight and impact will be reinforced by parallel campaigning activity by individual unions.
We will also be looking to campaign in the south for effective implementation of the
High Level Group report and the EU Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages which
seeks to raise collective bargaining coverage to 80% per cent of the workforce. Delegates – as you can see – we are on the cusp of something exciting and we shouldn't be afraid to celebrate the potential. While there's a lot more to do, we've made a decent start.
TASC (the Thinktank for Action on Social Change) published its trade union sponsored report on the post-pandemic State in February 2022.
As governments and the EU row back from the recognition of the central importance of the State during Covid, we should use these and our other arguments to win popular support for public services.
As the concept of the Four Day Week continues to gain traction we must remind people that the trade union movement was there from the start.
Just as we were in the case of remote working, access to flexible working, the right to disconnect, statutory sick pay, entitlement to 'tips' and so on.
The High Level Group on Collective Bargaining reported last October.
A few weeks later the EU Directive was finalised.
Neither is a panacea but, provided the legislation reflects their intent, we will have important opportunities to organise and to demonstrate our relevance in the south.
To be clear, strengthening the trade union movement requires multiple actions.
Following the last BDC the Secretariat completed a review and the GPC took ownership of a set of projects.
Some are now coming to fruition.
A survey of affiliates has revealed some scope for collaboration and sharing of resources and this is being progressed.
Covid interrupted the work of the ONE project and the Local Trade Union Centres initiative.
But there are grounds for optimism.
Last year, I announced that my own union Fórsa had ringfenced funding for the acquisition of three properties that could act as Local Trade Union Centres.
If other affiliates followed suit, even for one centre, we could make real progress quickly.
Recent retrenchment in the tech sector – and, as importantly, the disrespectful manner in which this has been carried out – have created opportunities for the movement to demonstrate relevance to workers who previously have been beyond our reach.
More generally, it is hoped that the planned promotional campaign I mentioned earlier, which is being targeted at younger workers, will help to create greater awareness of trade unions and our role.I have come to the conclusion that the best way to advance many of these objectives is through a project management approach. We need people with specific assignments and the time to carry them out to be charged with developing proposals for consideration and review by the General Purposes Committee and the Executive Council. I am fortified in that view by the experience of the past number of months during which Eoin Ronayne has been available to assist with the essential job of moving things on between meetings. My thanks to Eoin for his work in that regard.
During the last year, we have had the benefit of two important pieces of research.
The work by John Geary and Maria Belizon, arising from the UCD Working in Ireland Survey 2021, reveals an openness to trade union membership among many of the younger cohort of the workforce while also pointing to large numbers of former members who may be disposed to rejoining.
Research commissioned from Ireland Thinks showed a much higher awareness of the concept of collective bargaining than we might have thought.
It also pointed to high levels of endorsement of collective bargaining among supporters of all the political parties in the south – a good starting point for implementing the EU Directive.
I mentioned the war in Ukraine earlier in my speech in the context of its impact on energy inflation
It’s really important that we look at it too in terms of what actually happened there – an unjustified invasion of a sovereign country.
I am proud of the response of the Irish trade union movement which didn't hesitate to condemn the invasion and to stand with the Ukrainian people.
That was reflected, among other things, in the protest that we held outside the Russian embassy in Dublin exactly one month later.
I take this moment to send greetings to our comrades in the Ukrainian trade union movement, who haven't had it easy even before the invasion, and to assure them of our continued solidarity.
And it's appropriate at our BDC to send good wishes to workers everywhere but, if you'll forgive me, can I single out Colombia and Palestine. We are with you in your struggles.
During my term of office as President we had to replace the General Secretary and the Assistant General Secretary.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the huge contribution that Patricia King made during her time as GS.
She will particularly be remembered for her work on collective bargaining and for her key interventions in the early days of the Covid pandemic for which the Irish people are in her debt.
I know that Owen Reidy will be – and is already proving to be – a worthy successor.
Gerry Murphy, who has served as Chair of NIC-ICTU and President, was the right person to fill the AGS vacancy and I wish both Owen and Gerry well for a successful first conference in their new roles.
And to Justin also, as incoming President, over the next two years.
Delegates, we have the right people leading us; we have the right plans in place to match our ambition for the movement; let's come together confident and united at this conference so that it is a springboard to propel workers and their issues to the fore across our island.
