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Speeches

Remarks at the Opening of the Redeveloped Offices of the Communication Workers Union

28th March 2013

Tá mé thar a bheith sásta bheith anseo libh inniu. Míle bhuíochas daoibh as an cuireadh agus an fáilte.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Tá an-áthas orm an deis seo a bheith agam an ócáid thábhachtach seo i saol Cheardchumann na nOibrithe Cumarsáide a roinnt libh go léir. Tréaslaím bhur gceanncheathrú athchóirithe libh agus ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghlacadh le Steve Fitzpatrick as an gcuireadh fial a thug sé dom a bheith in bhur dteannta agus libh go léir as an bhfáilte chroíúil sin. 

[I am very pleased to have this opportunity to share this important occasion in the life of the Communication Workers’ Union with you all. I congratulate you on your newly refurbished headquarters and I would like to thank Steve Fitzpatrick for his kind invitation to join you and all of you for that warm welcome.] 

I am delighted that William Norton’s sons, Kevin and Brendan, are with us today to celebrate this wonderful occasion.

The Communications Workers’ Union we all know came into being more than a century ago in 1900 as what was known then as the Dual Workers’ Union. The Ireland of that time was one that was still ruled by Britain; it was an Ireland where tenements were so much a feature of urban living; where people suffered the rapid spread of disease, low life expectancy and high infant mortality rates, and a hard and unrelenting poverty. These were the everyday experiences of the urban poor of that time. 

It was also an Ireland with cities composed largely of unskilled workers, and craftworkers who endured a long apprenticeship, for whom job opportunities were scarce and union representation was non –existent, discouraged  or even prohibited outright. Despite considerable industrial unrest in the United Kingdom and a growing chasm between employers and the labour movement there, here in Dublin the lack of any visible signs of labour unrest had led the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, in the very year the Dual Workers Union was established, to declare: “We are pleased to note the growing disposition of all classes to unite in promoting the best interests of our country.”  Thus the rights of workers were buried under the project of Home Rule or independence of a formal kind.

However, even as those words were being spoken, some one hundred postal workers, believing themselves to be labouring under conditions inferior to their British counterparts, were preparing to unite in a spirit of workers’ solidarity and to form an Irish based organisation to campaign for fairness and equality.

It was an organisation that expanded rapidly, so much so that within three years branches were active in Belfast, Cork and Limerick and by 1905 the Dual Workers’ Union had become the Association of Irish Post Office Clerks and extended across seventy branches around the country. 

Wage protests by the Unions in that year contained a conspicuous presence of women members. Indeed, in 1910 the union sought equal pay for equal work, a radical position at the time – and in real terms an unrealised aspiration for decades to come in so much of the world of work -   led by Irish labour movement suffragettes like Louie Bennett and others. Women would, of course, be among the longest and first victims of the Lock Out in 1913 with, for example, Alice Brady aged 16 shot dead by a strike breaker who had been imported for that purpose. Padraig Yeates’ research shows that within the window of the minutes of Larkin’s appearance at the Imperial Hotel, 400 to 600 people were injured. 

We know that The First World War and the Easter Rising impacted heavily on the Association. In 1918 some 22 postal staff lost their lives off Dun Laoghaire when the RMS Leinster was sunk.

In April 1920, the first strike of Irish postal workers took place when the Association members took part in the Irish Labour Party & Trade Union Congress General Strike for the release of hunger striking Republican prisoners, the first ever strike action by postal staff.

Since those early years the Union, through many different amalgamations and mergers has gone from strength to strength to become the vibrant 17,000 member Communication Workers’ Union that we are familiar with today; a union that has produced leaders of the calibre of Terry Quinlan, Seamus de Paor and Con Scanlon and can boast Maurice Cosgrave and David Begg as two of its former General Secretaries.

The Communication Workers’ Union has contributed much to the proud history of trade unionism in this country and continues to play an important role as Ireland’s leading trade union representing workers in the postal, telecoms and call centre sectors.  The union was among the first to become involved in international development and issues of justice, and human rights as I can personally attest.

This year is, of course, a significant one for the Trade Union movement here in Ireland – the year we mark the centenary of one of the greatest confrontations between labour and capital in the history of the Irish state: the great Dublin Lockout of 1913 which convulsed Dublin in late August 1913.

That seven month battle, which affected thousands of workers and their families, was a protest against a version of capitalism that refused the most basic rights to workers, including the very right to belong to a union.  Today, we continue to be the beneficiaries of the struggle of the labour movement of 1913, a struggle that required courage, tenacity, solidarity and an ability to look beyond the short term challenges in order to realise what we hope will be a better, a fairer, world.

While workers today whether in the private or public sectors, have witnessed, and continue to witness, uncertainty about the future; concern about job security, pay cuts, increased taxes, concern about pension and prospects for their children the 1913 Lockout was an alliance of State and Employer extremism that could lead to trade union leaders Connolly and Larkin being charged with seditious libel. It is a most challenging time for all Unions and their members at all times to protect jobs and working conditions in a labour market dependent on a speculative form of Capital.

In such circumstances we may witness some employers act unethically, taking advantage of the economic difficulties of the day to act unfairly, disproportionally, by disrespecting and disregarding the rights and legitimate expectations of workers, in the almost certain knowledge that vulnerable workers – and here I am most conscious of immigrant workers - won’t complain for fear of censure or dismissal.

I salute the efforts of the trade union movement to right such wrongs as I do their ongoing efforts and those of our legislators to formulate and implement coherent and effective protection measures for workers.

In this year as we reflect on the 1913 Lock Out we see that it did not immediately result in better pay and conditions for employees; however it marked a milestone in Irish labour history, establishing the principle of workers solidarity. But perhaps most of all, in the poverty that the idealogically  driven Lockout created the assumptions, allegiances, ignorance and prejudices so many institutional sources of power were revealed.       

There can be no doubt that we owe an enormous debt of gratitude, not only to James Larkin, but to all the workers who stood bravely beside him during that long and difficult fight. The landscape for Irish workers has changed dramatically in the last one hundred years and today the right of every citizen to be a member of a union is protected in our Constitution.  Our growing body of employment rights legislation, much of it flowing from membership of the European Union, also ensures the right to a minimum wage and to a maximum working week, the right to fair redress in the event of unfair dismissal, the right to equal pay and equal treatment and the right to a safe and healthy working environment.

Our employment rights narrative is therefore a story of rights sought and won and sometimes evolution and development. However, we are living through very difficult times; times that challenge us to deliver an alternative society by rebuilding our economy in a way that will create a sustainable and productive connection between economy and society with sustainable and fulfilling employment and restoring Ireland’s once proud international reputation.

As the heirs and beneficiaries of that difficult and bitter struggle one hundred years ago, we must, as we currently face our own difficult times demonstrate that same determination and resourcefulness to bring about positive changes and to help create a society that we can be proud of – an inclusive society based on the important values of participation, respect for all and fairness.

It is a challenge in which all Unions, including the Communications Workers’ Union, will be called upon to play their part as Ireland makes the transition from an economic model that has failed humanity to one that has yet to be fully realised.

As we make that transition we must refocus and reaffirm the values of active citizenship and a caring community and reject the view of the individual as being no more than a consumer of goods and services. We must ensure that the personal social and cultural rights of each citizen, indeed every worker,  are placed firmly at the centre of a re-built economy as we deliver our view of a newly imagined Ireland – an Ireland where all citizens can participate equally .

Tá gluaiseacht na gceardchumann tar éis a bheith lárnach i bhforbairt phobal le níos mó ná céad bliain anuas agus creidim go nglacfaidh an ghluaiseacht sin, nó gur cheart go nglacfadh, gluaiseacht ina bhfuil sibh go léir chomh gníomhach sin, ról lárnach in atógáil ár sochaí a bhfuil an oiread sin dochair déanta dó.

[The trade union movement has been central to the development of community for over a century and I believe that the trade union movement, of which you all form such an active part, will or should I say must, play a pivotal role in rebuilding our damaged society.]

Today, of course, we also remember William Norton after whom this building has been named. William Norton was born in the same year that those one hundred innovative workers organized themselves as the Dual Workers’ Union and was just twenty three years of age when he became Secretary General of the Post Office Workers’ Union.

William Norton was also, of course, a distinguished politician, serving as Labour Party leader from 1932 until 1960, and a parliamentarian of integrity, wisdom and great compassion.  He was the main engineer of this country’s first inter-party Government in 1948 and a man whose commitment to the creation of a just, equal and fair society is without question. He was also a man who would have been very proud indeed to know that the CWU had honoured him, fifty years after his death, by ensuring their newly refurbished headquarters would bear his name.   

I know that the former Saint Canice’s School premises served as home to the CWU since 1982.  The National Executive Council in 2011 decided to invest in a major redevelopment and the newly developed premises have been designed to marry state of the art equipment with a true sense of the history of the old headquarters. The magnificent school staircase, for example, has been recovered from the old building and lovingly restored to its former glory and incorporated wonderfully into the fabric of the building. I congratulate you on such a sensitive and successful redevelopment and hope these new offices serve you well in your work. I wish many years of success and solidarity within them.

Go n-éirí go geal libh sna blianta atá romhainn san oifig nua seo agus go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.