Politics

Vibrant trade unions in North possible after shift in political status quo

Irish Congress of Trade Unions counts membership of 200,000 in NI and increasing after strikes in key sectors

Ictu’s Belfast-based deputy general secretary Gerry Murphy believes the British government 'will have to put more money in'. Photograph: PA

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Emmet Malone
Mon Mar 11 2024 - 10:44

It’s no great surprise to hear senior Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) official Gerry Murphy say the organisation was pleased with the speech delivered last month by newly appointed Minister for the Economy Conor Murphy on his Northern Ireland policy objectives.

After a prolonged period out in the political cold, Ictu’s Belfast-based deputy general secretary believes the new Minister’s public pronouncement regarding the role he sees for stronger unions is in part the product of a wider private shift in perception. Ictu, which has 200,000 members in the North, is benefiting, he suggests, from its contribution to the current economic debate and role in public sector pay disputes which, he contends, played a key part in the restoration of powersharing.

The union movement is having something of a moment in the North right now, he suggests, having increased membership off the back of the strikes in key sectors of the economy and strengthened its relations with the various political parties.

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He is speaking ahead of Ictu’s launch on Tuesday of a document in which it argues for a greater role in government-backed bodies. Its representation, Ictu says, has fallen by 84 per cent since the late 1980s as a combination of Conservative governments and civil servants steadily undermined a system of engagement with employers and worker representatives that had previously served the population well at a time of severe crisis.

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“Conor Murphy has certainly indicated he wants to see increased levels of worker representation on these boards again,” says Murphy. “And while traditionally other political parties might have looked at things differently, things have been changing. For example, the DUP has increased their level of engagement considerably. We have had several face-to-face meetings with Jeffrey Donaldson who has explicitly said to us he wishes to work more closely with the trade union movement. It’s all very positive.”

Some 170,000 public-sector workers in the North are staging a 24-hour strike.

Murphy sees greater representation on the various state-backed boards and committees in which the unions previously played a far more significant part as offering Ictu and its constituent member organisations a say in day-to-day decision-making and a presence in the broader area of policy formulation.

Influence has rarely been more important with the recent public sector disputes having highlighted the extent to which tens of thousands of Northern Irish workers had fallen behind their counterparts in the rest of Ireland and Britain.

“The fact Stormont was down, the fact that they weren’t able to do any serious financial planning, the levels of public debt, Covid and the cost-of-living crisis … all of that contributed to a situation where incomes across the public sector as a whole fell in comparison to those in the other devolved regions and in England itself,” says Murphy.

“If you only look down the road from Belfast towards Dublin and compare salaries, with teachers for example, the gap is shocking.”

[ Northern Ireland public sector workers vow ‘this is not the end’ for mass industrial action ]

However, the issue of how the proposed pay settlements will be paid for into the future is already contentious.

Ictu argues that with day-to-day public spending in the North having increased only by 4 per cent between 2010 and 2020, the need for greater backing from London is clear.

Murphy acknowledges the challenge given the various tax-spending commitments being made by Labour and the Conservatives but still seems confident it can be secured. “As things stand Northern Ireland is not funded at a sustainable level,” he says. “If they [the British government] are serious about stabilisation, serious about transformation, serious about a stable political future then they’re going to have to put more money in.”

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