Ireland: The Importance of Union Membership.
Ok so kind of an important one. Who here is a member of a Trade Union? When was the last time you were approached about joining a Trade Union? And of course the other question, Why should you join a Trade Union?
Well what has prompted this post? Well RTE reports this afternoon that figures just released from the CSO for 2007, show a continued drop in Union membership to just under 30% of employees. This reflects a trend which started in 2003. Now regardless of the ins and outs of the economy and to what extent employers allow unions to flourish within their organisations, I honestly cannot remember when the last time was a Trade union approached me about signing up. This then begs the question, Why should I bother or even worry about the dwindling membership of the trade union movement in this country.
Quiet simply put, Why will I be joining SIPTU or another union properly when I leave college? Because I recognise the importance of being in a Trade Union when I am in the "Real World" for the defence of Worker's rights. Things may have changed alot in the last number of years with the advancement of Employment Equality Legislation, the Equal Status Acts, the Equality Tribunal or the Labour Court or even the Social Partnership process. All well and good but alot of these advances have come partly from ourselves and also from Europe: When we brought in the ESA in 1997, it was the most progressive list of Equality statues, 9, in Europe, which has provided the basis for the most extensive list which now exists in Slovenia.
However, just to refer to something I mentioned above Is it time for Unions to become a little bit more proactive in acquiring new members? Yes fair enough I am sure there are resource issues etc. but surely resources well spent on acquiring new workers dues will help the Union movement in the long run. Actually as I think of it, I can remember the last time I had a Union interaction, however I was not approached personally even though I was available for discussion. That particular interaction left a little bit of a polarised workplace for a couple of weeks which kind of created a definite Manager/Worker role which was quiet sad because a Union in that particular situation would have been quiet handy.
A weak Trade Union movement is bad for all of us. The powers that be, may not necessarily like to have a unionised workforce and it may be that you never need to use your Trade Union for anything in your workplace But in building up a solid Trade Union movement again, we can prevent the slip back and the encroachments of people's employment rights by the powers that be. So the moral of the Story: JOIN A UNION!
Links:
Quiet simply put, Why will I be joining SIPTU or another union properly when I leave college? Because I recognise the importance of being in a Trade Union when I am in the "Real World" for the defence of Worker's rights. Things may have changed alot in the last number of years with the advancement of Employment Equality Legislation, the Equal Status Acts, the Equality Tribunal or the Labour Court or even the Social Partnership process. All well and good but alot of these advances have come partly from ourselves and also from Europe: When we brought in the ESA in 1997, it was the most progressive list of Equality statues, 9, in Europe, which has provided the basis for the most extensive list which now exists in Slovenia.
However, just to refer to something I mentioned above Is it time for Unions to become a little bit more proactive in acquiring new members? Yes fair enough I am sure there are resource issues etc. but surely resources well spent on acquiring new workers dues will help the Union movement in the long run. Actually as I think of it, I can remember the last time I had a Union interaction, however I was not approached personally even though I was available for discussion. That particular interaction left a little bit of a polarised workplace for a couple of weeks which kind of created a definite Manager/Worker role which was quiet sad because a Union in that particular situation would have been quiet handy.
A weak Trade Union movement is bad for all of us. The powers that be, may not necessarily like to have a unionised workforce and it may be that you never need to use your Trade Union for anything in your workplace But in building up a solid Trade Union movement again, we can prevent the slip back and the encroachments of people's employment rights by the powers that be. So the moral of the Story: JOIN A UNION!
Links:
- SIPTU
- UNITE
- IMPACT
- Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) (www.ictu.ie) Note: ICTU is the umbrella organisation for unions operating in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. British unions operate in Northern Ireland, as do some all-Ireland unions, and some Northern Ireland-only unions.
- Wikipedia List of Unions across the World.
Labels: Dublin, ICTU, IMPACT, Ireland, RTE, SIPTU, trade union membership, Union, Unite
posted by John James at
3:21 PM
5 Comments:
I've been a member of three trade unions through my "career": GPMU, NUJ, and PSEU. I was also quite active in the NUJ. And when I had a junior managerial role in a company that didn't recognise unions, and raised a few eyebrows when I asked HR about the right of a guy with whom we were about to begin disciplinary processes to have a representative from a union. If that isn't eveidence of commitment, when I bought my first mobile phone, I contacted the CWU to find out which operators in Ireland recognise them for the purposes of both individual staff issues and collective bargaining. (Meteor and Voda[ph|f]one, if you're interested.)
But, bejaysus, the PSEU drives me demented.
I also think that the Irish trade union movement over the last 10 to 20 years has become unfocused. I am so glad to see David Begg at the helm in Congress. It may not have garnered major front-page headlines, but three times in the last five months he has warned that a core issue is the disparity in wages between the upper end of the scale and the lower. Significantly, when the popular huff a few months ago was about Bertie being recommended for a €38k pay rise, Begg was the only one to point out that the real problem that this figure was based on linking the Taoiseach's salary to the lowest quartile of senior managers in the private sector.
Just curious, but what do mean by "worker's rights"? You probably know that there is a huge difference between positive and negative rights:
Link (wikipedia)
Enforcing one type of right can result in the violation of another type, so this can be an important question.
Hey tipster,
cheers for the comment. I agree the Irish trade Union movement has become somewhat unfocused over the last couple of years; This could be related to their continued involvement within the Social Partnership process and such. Whether Union 'Interests' i.e. Worker's Interests are better served within that process, is debatable.
Rgds,
J.
This comment has been removed by the author.
*removed the previous post@ 9:15pm by mistake*
Hey Graham,
Again, cheers for the comment. They are always appreciated. When I talk about Worker's rights, I am referring to the labour laws of the country, which govern time spent in work, holiday time, contract law, amount of time between shifts, lunch breaks etc.
I agree, with regards your link to wikipedia [which always manages to devour more of my time, especially when you keep pressing hyperlinks :-) ] that all rights have a positive and negative impact depending on who and what context you are referring to. Obviously Worker's rights have to be balanced with those of Employer's rights and this is why the rule of law exists to help this Balance. However, with rights come responsibilities. responsibilities for ensuring your employee's rights are adhered to, but also from an Employee side that they fulfill their workplace responsibility to their Employer in a way that protects the Employer's right to make a living.
rgds,
J.
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