‘Keep Water Public’ campaign seeks referendum date Fósa is one of the unions that has formed the coalition behind the ‘Keep Water Public’ campaign. Launched at the end of October, the campaign calls on the Government to confirm a date for a constitutional referendum on the public ownership of water services. The campaign is supported by Fórsa, SIPTU, Unite, Connect and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. Speaking at the campaign launch, ICTU president and Fórsa general secretary, Kevin Callinan, said the campaign to name the date for a referendum represented a shared commitment by trade unions to ensure the future of […]

At today’s Irish Congress of Trade Unions Executive committee meeting, Owen Reidy, the outgoing Assistant General Secretary was ratified as the new General Secretary of the Congress following Patricia King, after she stepped down from the post this month. Mr.Reidy, a father of 2 and a native of Donegal has 24 years of full-time experience in the Irish trade union movement. He started his career as a union official in SIPTU in the west of Ireland and occupied a range of roles in the union representing and organising workers in the aviation, insurance, and finance, non-commercial semi-states, and cleaning and […]

From the well-known blog : Notesonthefront.blog Ireland’s High Living Costs We all know that Ireland has a high level of living costs – second highest in the EU.  Irish prices (living costs) are 40 percent above the EU average.  However, comparison with the EU average can be misleading.  High-income countries invariably have higher living costs.  In the graph above all countries in our peer group exceed the EU average.    So the better comparison is with other high-income countries and not the EU base-line.  Nonetheless, bar Denmark, we are well above price levels in those countries – even high-cost Sweden. While there […]

Publication of the Final Report of the LEEF High-Level Working Group on Collective Bargaining 5th October 2022 The Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD and the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD have today announced the publication of the Final Report of the LEEF High-Level Working Group on Collective Bargaining. The High-Level Working Group was formed in March 2021 to review the collective bargaining landscape in Ireland and to make recommendations for improvement.   See conclusions from Page 27:   7. Conclusions The Group considers this report to contain a package of recommendations, which, if implemented in full, will improve […]

The bargaining power of workers has declined strongly in the Euro zone since the 1980s Wage share & trade union density have fallen & profit share has increased The fall in Union density Is inextricably linked to falling wage share & rising profits   TIME TO JOIN A UNION AND AGITATE.    

One day strike action today by Fórsa members at St. Josephs Foundation in Charleville, Co. Cork Unions step up action for improved funding and pay in State funded agencies Fórsa trade union members at St. Josephs Foundation in Charleville, Co. Cork are taking strike action today as a series of three consecutive one-day strike actions commences today (Wednesday) in community and voluntary sector agencies. St. Joseph’s Foundation provides a range of services and supports for people with disabilities, and is the lead agency for the two North Cork Children disability Network (CDN) teams. The strike action today forms part of the […]

  Over 150,000 strike on historic day for our union – region by region August 31 2022 Members in Royal Mail, BT, Openreach and Parcelforce walk out right across the country in the CWU’s biggest ever action… Delivery, processing, network and engineering services, distribution, vehicle repair, plant maintenance and admin at two of the UK’s largest companies were hugely impacted in every corner of the country today as pickets were deployed from the early hours of the morning until late in the evening. Strikers were in good humour and high spirits, as well as disciplined and determined, united in standing […]

  The High Court has blocked the Minister of State for Employment, Damien English, from introducing pay increases for 16,000 workers in the security industry from next Monday. Barrister Eoin O’Shea told Ms Justice Nuala Butler that the Minister had signalled by way of a press release on 3 August his intention to commence an Employment Regulation Order to increase pay for security guards. Mr O’Shea, who appeared with Tom Casey Solicitors for three security companies, was granted leave on behalf of Top Security, Morbury and Las Security to challenge by way of judicial review the minister’s decision and the […]

The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing more than 105 million workers from 133 countries of the 5 continents salutes the massive strike and demonstration organized by workers, students, farmers, and popular strata in Jakarta, Indonesia against the anti-people and anti-labor policies of the Indonesian government on August 10th, 2022. The international class-oriented trade union movement joins its voice with the WFTU affiliates and the trade union movement in Indonesia demanding withdrawal of the Omnibuslaw, P3 Laws and canceling of the RKUHP Laws as well the canceling of the SISDIKNNAS laws revision.  We also demand effective measures against the rise […]

Fórsa has written to the newly elected Colombian government to express support for its political programme and emphasise the union’s continued commitment to supporting implementation of the 2016 peace agreement. In a letter addressed to President Gustavo Petro and Vice-President Francia Márquez, a group of British and Irish unions representing over 6.5 million workers, welcomed policies which contained “the potential for change that could see significant steps away from the violence and deep-rooted inequality that has affected Colombia for so long.” The Justice for Colombia union coalition congratulated Colombian president Gustavo Petro and vice-president Francia Márquez on their hard-won victory. […]