At the last Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) biennial delegate conference on 26/9/21 a motion proposed by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) was unanimously passed calling for legislation to be enacted to return all rights lost by workers as result of restrictions imposed under the 1990 industrial relations act. Since then, very little has happened to progress this legislation. The Trade Left Forum (TULF) have stepped up to this challenge to draft a bill for legislation that would repair some of the damage done by years of anti-Union legislation in Ireland. TULF have now drafted a bill […]

The absence of agreement between unions, Government and employer representatives on practical measures to expand the range of free and affordable public services is undermining the national response to Ireland’s cost of living crisis, according to Fórsa. Speaking at the 80,000-strong union’s national conference in Killarney today (Thursday), Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said Ireland should resist a return to the “poor quality” social dialogue in place prior to the pandemic, during which more intense engagements shaped and delivered workplace safety protocols and emergency income supports. He called for intensified dialogue to improve Ireland’s ‘social wage,’ or state spending on […]

SIPTU members attended a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands on Wednesday (11th May) to brief it on the growing threat to the operation of community schemes across the country. Rural Social Scheme (RSS) supervisor and member of the SIPTU RSS National Committee, Liz MacDonald, told the Committee that the programmes she operates provide financial support to low-income farmers and fishermen in return for them providing 19.5 hours of work each week supporting services in their local communities.  She said: “The work carried out by RSS is far reaching and includes tidy town projects, […]

We publish today the “Rome Declaration” which was adopted by the 18th World Trade Union Congress on May 8th, 2022 in Rome, Italy, and constitutes the main guidelines of the WFTU for the next 5 years.  

The international class-oriented trade union movement commemorates the 74th anniversary of Nakba Day and the killing of 15.000 Palestinians on May 15, 1948, and the displacement of 750.000 others during that period, by the state of Israel.  The World Federation of Trade Unions on behalf of its 105 million workers who work, live, and struggle in 133 countries on the 5 continents firmly stands on the side of the heroic Palestinian people and strongly condemns the constant crime of the Israeli occupation and its barbaric consequences. We denounce the hypocrisy and the dirty role of the USA, EU, and NATO […]

The Financial Services Union (FSU) have launched a campaign to restore the 35-hour working week in AIB. The Union state that during the years of austerity the working week in AIB was extended from 35 hours to 37 hours. Speaking at the Triennial Conference of the FSU, Billy Barrett, Senior Industrial Relations Officer with responsibility for members in AIB commented: “In a judgment a couple of years ago the Labour Court stated that “employees who cooperated with adjustments to pay and conditions of employment during the crisis are entitled to have those progressively reversed as circumstances improve “AIB has reported […]

Trade Union Left Forum   Mayday Statement: Trade union left forum wish to extend our solidarity greetings to workers their families unions and communities in Ireland and beyond on this International Workers Day. We take this opportunity to announce that the TULF have completed drafting a bill for legislation to replace many of the workers’ rights lost as a result of decades of anti-worker legislation dating back to the 1940s. The TULF  have been campaigning for the last 4 years against anti-worker legislation, many unions along with the next generation of workers in the form of the Union of Students in […]

Thursday 28 April 2022 Sisters/Brothers, I’m honoured and delighted to address this important gathering today, as we not only commemorate those great Irish women and men who fought so gallantly against the odds and for so long in delivering to some extent our country’s independence from a cruel colonial power, but equally importantly to reaffirm our ongoing struggle for a true republic in which the focus is firmly on its citizens, families and communities. I’m also very humbled that as Mandate President we remember in our commemoration two true Irish men in that struggle for independence- Patrick Moran from Roscommon […]

Dublin Council Of Trade Unions Invites ALL Workers and others to their May Day Rally this coming Sunday 1st May. The slogan will be A Decent Public Health Service! End the Housing Crisis now! Assemble: Garden of Remembrance. Parnell Square. Dublin at 1.30 PM.  Followed by march to Liberty Hall for Public meeting outside. Support your Trade Union. Come along and bring family and friends.

In one of the most remarkable labor organizing victories in decades, the Amazon workers in Staten Island voted to unionize with the independent Amazon Labor Union (ALU). This is the first organizing victory for any union at any of Amazon’s 110 warehouses across the USA, the nation’s second largest employer with over a million employees. This was a real bottom-up organizing effort potentially highlighting an effective way forward for the rest of labor – a victory that gives momentum to workers not only in the other Amazon warehouses but in all industries. It demonstrates how and why rank and file […]