100 years on, trade union movement strives to stay relevant
The Strawbs song has rung out across trade union conferences for 40 years, both here and in Britain.
The problem is that, in the face of the mass unemployment brought on by the crippling recession, many people no longer have a job with terms and conditions which they rely upon unions to protect.
They also need the money they would otherwise have spent on subs to pay for day-to-day living. It is a worrying time for a movement which should be in celebratory mood.
Trade unions are in the midst of commemorating the centenary of the Dublin 1913 Lockout — the seminal period in the formation of collective representation for the working and middle classes.
The Lockout began on Aug 26, 1913, when all the trams on O’Connell St stopped, with workers seeking pay rises ranging from 1-2 shillings a week. William Martin Murphy, the owner of the Dublin Tramway Company, locked out members of the ITGWU who refused to sign the pledge and leave the union. James Larkin, leader of the union, called a general strike. In the disputes that followed, more than 20,000 workers were either locked out of their jobs by their employers or went on strike.
At the time jobs were few and far between and employers were seen as banding together to ensure the working classes remained underprivileged while their bosses flourished.
Fast-forward 100 years and the situation has obviously improved for workers in terms of their living and working conditions. But even trade unions are questioning whether those improvements have been sufficient.
In his history on the Lockout on the Siptu website, Francis Devine writes: “In terms of a social audit of Ireland today as compared to 1913 can we really claim to be in credit?
“Certainly, extreme poverty has gone but things are relative to the times. We still have acute housing problems, attacks on hard-won health, education and social services, and new problems of urban decay, drug abuse, vandalism, and crime in the alienation of our youth.
“Regrettably there is now a gathering attack on trade unionism and the essential collective value that it represents and to which the whole of Irish society owes many of its freedoms.”
It's supercool to remember the 1913 Dublin Lockout, but perhaps let's apply some lessons to economic and social security needs in 2013.
— 🐀 Parody (parody) {parody} (@janeruffino) August 30, 2013
There have been significant hits to the trade union movement’s standing in society in recent years.
The demise of the formal structures of social partnership is down to the Government’s intention to take a harder line on trade union demands than its predecessor, despite the Labour Party being part of the Coalition.
“Despite tremendous growth in numerical terms in the size of the trade union movement in the 1970s, working-class organisation has not been reflected in political gains,” Mr Devine writes.
While Labour has been on the fringes of governments during the last 100 years, it has too often been forced to concede on its ideals in order to secure a place at the cabinet table.
Most recently, when Croke Park II was rejected by the unions, the rewrite that was the Haddington Road Agreement still contained the same required savings total — though unions were successful in securing no core pay cuts for low-paid workers and an assurance on a return of pay levels after the expiration of the deal.
Public versus private sector is a division that unions have fought to downplay. The latest negotiations exposed a deep-rooted divide in public sector unionism.
Unsurprising then, that at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions biennial conference in July, the groundwork was laid for a process which could see the existing 48affiliate trade unions reduced to as few as six within a couple of years.
A senior trade union source admitted at the time that the number of unions on an island so small was simply “incoherent” and could not continue if it were to meet the challenges of the next 100 years.
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