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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
September/October 2015 15
G
ROWING links between some
unions in the Republic and Sinn
Féin are causing certain concerns
in the Northern trade union movement.
While in the North the trade unions
largely succeeded in holding together in
a period of communal division, as part
of wider society they are not immune
from its tensions.
In the past there were significant sec-
tarian splits, both in the Post-World War
One period, and after World War Two. In
the s, there was a campaign to set
up an ‘Ulster TUC’, withdrawing from the Irish Congress of
Trade Unions (ICTU) and establishing what would have been a
Protestant trade union federation. This did not take off.
Recently, there have been rumblings from some Loyalists
about moving to set up some sort of new union. This, so far,
has not even had the limited momentum of the s.
However, there are fears a volatile situation could open up if
the Sinn Féin-trade union link develops in the Republic. Sinn
Féin has largely occupied the Social Democratic space for-
merly occupied by the Labour Party. Union leaders such as
ICTU President John Douglas and SIPTU General President
Jack O’Connor have spoken of working with the party.
Already among many Unionists there is a perception that
unions have a nationalist agenda. Ironically, in the past it was
Nationalists who were negative. Forty years ago, the per-
ceived ‘typical’ Northern trade unionist was a Protestant male
in engineering. At the time a significant section of nationalists
saw trade unions as ‘Protestant’ and defenders of job discrim-
ination – despite
some of the leading
figures in the Provi-
sional IRA, such as
John Kelly and Brian
Keenan, having trade
union backgrounds.
Because of the run-
down of traditional
manufacturing, the
stereotype of the typi-
cal trade unionist now
is of a Catholic woman
in the public sector.
As before, this is simplistic. Since the Northern Assembly
was set up, those politicians perceived as closest to the trade
union movement have been Unionists. When David Ervine and
Billy Hutchinson sat in the Assembly for the Progressive
Unionist Party, they were members of the Amalgamated
Transport and General Workers Union (now part of UNITE).
They regularly met senior union figures to discuss how to pro-
mote a union agenda. Former Ulster Unionist Assembly
member Fred Cobain was also seen as very union-friendly.
A significant factor is that the North’s unions have fared
better than their brothers and sisters in the rest of the UK.
They have retained a relatively high membership. At %,
Northern union membership is the second highest of any part
of the UK. There has been a , increase in trade union
membership in the last years. This still represents a %
drop in percentage terms. The North has the highest percent-
age of employees covered by collective agreements of any part
of the UK.
That numerical strength hides certain weaknesses. Twen-
ty-six percent of the workforce is in the public sector, the
highest percentage of any part of the UK. That public-sector
workforce is strongly unionised. Outside the public sector,
union membership is patchy. Where such exists, there is gen-
erally not the same level of organisation.
The North’s unions have, despite those weak points, had a
degree of success. In March, there was a widely followed one-
day strike across much of the public sector. This was a first for
the North’s trade union movement, in that it was political -
against the Belfast Agreement, and thus against an Executive
that contains the five main parties, including Sinn Féin. How-
ever, the campaign against cuts in public spending has not
since had the same degree of public visibility.
Meanwhile, the political issue continues to simmer. A
spokesperson for ICTU in the North said that the unions have
been independent of political parties “as has been demon-
strated over years”. At its Irish conference the UNITE
union, which has a sizeable membership on both sides of the
Border, went further and passed a motion that the union “does
not form links of any description or give support either
directly or indirectly to political parties which are one sided
and sectarian, or parties which are pro-austerity”.
Clearly, a trade union-Sinn Féin deal is not a given. •
After a difficult journey, North’s unions are anti-sectarian, anti-one-sided parties and anti-
austerity. By Anton McCabe
NEWS Northern Ireland
Forty
years ago
nationalists
saw trade
unions as
‘Protestant’
and defenders
of job
discrimination
– despite some
leading IRA
figures having
trade union
backgrounds
“
North’s unions wary of South’s
embrace of Sinn Féin
Jack O’Connor addressing Sinn Féin Ard Fheis
