ICTU leader should not engage in party politics

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor has called for a general election.

He states that he has “refrained from making such a call as I do not believe it is good for trade union leaders to put ourselves at such odds with the Government” and then proceeds to do just that by calling for the dissolution of the Government.

This is straightforward party politics. His union gives political and financial support to one political party, Labour.

What Mr O’Connor really means is that his political party wants a general election.

If he wants to get involved in party politics, that’s his choice. If he wants to involve his union in party politics, that’s a matter for him and his members.

But Mr O’Connor is also president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and this makes it the business of every member of every affiliated trade union.

I am a member of a union (National Union of Journalists) that does not, as a matter of principle, contribute to any political party, but is affiliated to ICTU. It is important to me that my trade union, and any organisation to which it is affiliated, keeps out of party politics.

I would ask Jack O’Connor unambiguously to clarify that this partisan policy is not the policy of ICTU.

Ronan Quinlan

Bóthar tslí Leathain

Dublin 15