What is the new
LITTLE notice was taken when the State's largest union, SIPTU, and its largest craft union, the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, signed the Articles of Association for the Trade Union Federation (TUF) in Liberty Hall last week, but many other trade union leaders, not to mention employers, are wondering just what is TUF.
At the signing, TEEU general secretary Mr Owen Wills could not resist warning employers: "TUF talk will be followed by TUF action, to protect the weakest and most vulnerable in our society. That, after all, is what trade union solidarity is all about."
But how precisely will it happen? The federation's two affiliates, which organised the half-day stoppage and protest marches last October over low statutory redundancy payments, are already claiming the improved redundancy terms in the national Sustaining Progress programme as a victory for TUF's campaigning style.
Neither Mr Wills nor SIPTU president Mr Des Geraghty are worried that each union may end up voting on opposite sides at next month's special delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) to consider Sustaining Progress. It may even help both men allay fears among members who believe TUF presages a merger of SIPTU and the TEEU.
The different stance on a new agreement underlines the nature of TUF - it is a federation, not an amalgamation. It allows the two unions to pursue common objectives, such as better redundancy pay, while retaining freedom of action in other areas.
The first practical impact of TUF will be at the mundane level of plant bargaining. In the past, SIPTU and the TEEU not only negotiated separately but sometimes disputed each other's right to representation in plants where one of them enjoyed sole negotiating rights.
It was a particularly high profile, though shortlived, dispute over this issue at Liebherr Cranes in Killarney two years ago, that brought TEEU and SIPTU leaders together to find a better way.
This week the first practical results of the process will be seen when TEEU assistant general secretary Mr Eamon Devoy goes to the Kerry Foods plant at Shillelagh, Co Wicklow, to represent 34 craft workers traditionally represented by SIPTU, which organises the other 800 employees. Mr Devoy insists the change does not mean fragmentation but greater co-ordination between the unions. "It will certainly strengthen our bargaining power within sectors such as manufacturing, where we are both strong," he says.
But the underlying dynamic behind the federation, which will remain part of ICTU, is the recognition that even unions as large as SIPTU or with as much industrial muscle as the TEEU need strategic alliances in the same way as private companies.
"I see this as the first step in a new model of trade unionism," says Mr Geraghty. "With globalisation and rapid economic change in the EU, the trade union movement must begin to strengthen itself, and civil society generally, to ensure the interests of workers, pensioners and their families - particularly those without economic power - are protected."
He says TUF will be "an organising and a campaigning entity committed to increasing the level of union organisation in all sectors". There will be an emphasis on organising younger and atypical workers in vulnerable employment. Mr Geraghty and Mr Wills see recognition as the key issue for Irish unions at the start of the 21st century.
TUF will ultimately be measured by its ability to organise and mobilise new members. It is significant that, by opting for a federal structure, or strategic alliance, rather than a merger, SIPTU and the TEEU are following a rising international trend.
While TUF is large by Irish standards, incorporating almost half of all trade unionists in the Republic, it is tiny in comparison with EU counterparts, such as the million-strong AMICUS federation in Britain and three million-strong Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkeschaft (Ver.di) in Germany.
Ver.di has set up joint initiatives with other unions, such as the Connex project with IG Medien amongst German media workers. People can access Connex for advice on job contracts, copyright law or performance appraisals without joining either union. One of the most recent marginal groups targeted by Ver.di are prostitutes. It established an EU "first" last year with the establishment of a works council in a Hamburg brothel.
All of these federations are dwarfed by the 20 million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Union (ICEM), which has 399 affiliates in 108 countries. It began in the industrialised heartland of the US but, realising it could not compete with multinationals able to relocate in developing countries, it opted to follow the work. ICEM provides "a clearing house for trade union expertise", and its basic creed is promote "the global application of the best possible standards and applications".
TUF plans to do the same within Ireland, using its existing industrial base as a launchpad to spread the word of the "new unionism" to the unorganised and the unconverted. There could indeed be TUF times ahead.
Padraig Yeates is a freelance journalist and industrial relations consultant
