SIPTU issues wake-up call on union decline

AS the proportion of workers in trade unions continues to fall, unions were told they would have to become more relevant to workers’ needs if they are to be able to represent them in the future.

Ten years ago, 60% of workers in the private sector were union members, but the number is now between 40% and 50%, said Brendan Hayes, vice-president of the country’s biggest union SIPTU, which has 250,000 members.

“Our membership is actually increasing, but is not keeping pace with the growth in employment. An issue of serious concern is that the proportion of the overall workforce in unions in dropping,” he told the south west regional SIPTU conference in Tralee, Co Kerry.

Pointing as an example to Donegal firm Fruit of the Loom, which is due to close next year, Mr Hayes said traditional jobs that were union-organised were disappearing rapidly and new jobs being created were, by and large, non-union ones. If that continued, unions would end up with a smaller proportion of the workforce and would find it increasingly difficult to represent members in the private sector.

“It would be only a matter of time after that before it would become difficult to represent members in the public sector as well,” he added.

SIPTU has set up a recruiting and organising unit with eight full-time staff, under one of its leading officials, Noel Dowling.

Mr Hayes said many unions had 100-year-old structures, but would now have to come into the 21st century.

“We must restore faith in the capacity of the trade union movement to meet people’s needs, must do better for our existing members and need to be more in touch with them to deliver on their aspirations,” he added.

One of the hottest issues centred on the estimated 30,000 overseas workers expected to come into the country each year to meet the needs of a growing economy.

A motion by Cork number seven branch calling for a change in the work permit system - to ensure the worker and not the employer controlled the permit - was passed.

Teresa O’Sullivan, proposing, said great injustices were being done and overseas workers were extremely vulnerable to exploitation by unscrupulous employers.

Ms O’Sullivan, who said she worked in the contract cleaning sector for 20 years, called for an end to the “bonded slavery” of non-national workers and said the union should become their voice, as many were afraid to make their own voices heard.

Another Cork delegate, Anthony O’Sullivan, seconding, accused IBEC and the Government of endorsing “slavery, pure and simple” and claimed the system was being used to suppress the wages and conditions of existing workers.