Plan would see 48 unions reduced to 6

This year’s Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) biennial conference will lay the groundwork for a process which could see the existing 48 affiliate trade unions reduced to as few as six within a few years.

The conference, which begins in Belfast this morning, will consider the Future Positive compiled by ICTU general secretary David Begg, which lays out a potential roadmap for the restructuring of the entire trade union movement in this country.

One informed sources said that restructuring would be designed “to meet the challenges of the next century”. It would involve an entire new constitution with the rationalisation process to potentially follow a similar course to the FNV trade union movement in Holland which re-divided itself into broader sectors such as FNV health and FNV education.