Labour movement urgently needs to re-ignite its fighting spirit

In light of the current dispute at Dunnes Stores it seems astonishing how relatively little workers rights have progressed during the last century. 

Traditional histories of Kerry and indeed Ireland during the First World War have ignored the role of social movements including the growing militancy of trade unions. In Kerry the labour movement was to fight some very bitter disputes during the First World War.

Perhaps the best example of rank and file militancy during this period was the dispute at the Munster Warehouse in Tralee where 15 shop assistants went on strike for three years between 1915 and 1918, in protest at the company’s breaking of a local agreement concerning the ‘living-in system’.