One of my favourite clips on youtube is produced by the
Australian Trade Union movement. It parodies the Life of Brian. It asks what
did the trade unions ever do for us? I was reminded of that video last Friday
in County Hall. Wexford Council of Trade
Unions organised a seminar where Patricia King President of ICTU met about 100
students and spoke to open an exhibition where unions met teenagers to explain
what trade unions do. Ireland Rugby International Katie Fitzhenry also spoke to
the gathering.
I’ve been a trade union member since I became a
teacher. Nobody told me I had to join a
union. I simply considered it important
because I knew I’d spend most of my working life in a classroom. In fact I was
a student member when studying. A trade
union joins people with a common interest. It’s a modern community based on a
workplace. It’s a myth that you have to have an employer to be a union member.
Anyone can join a union whenever and wherever they like. You don’t have to have
a workplace to join.
Most people see a trade union only through an industrial
relations dispute or talks. This is only the half of it. Union members can get
reductions on contributions to health insurance, holidays in unionised hotels,
pension advice, advice on issues in workplace among other things, I’ve
benefitted because professional negotiators were able to get a better deal form
my employer than I could ever have got by going in on my own. Sure, in that
time we’ve gone on strike on a range of issues. Strikes mean you’ll lose your
pay on a point of principle. But eventually all disputes get resolved.
However union membership is significantly lower than it used
to be. That’s for a wide number of reasons. The economy has moved from a
productive base with large number of workers in a factory to one of services
with less employees with the emphasis on flexibility. Long before the economic slump, workers
viewed union membership differently. I recall listening to a radio vox pop
about 15 years where young workers said they didn’t need to be a member and
that you get all your rights from the government anyway.
Union membership is still strong in the state sector but in
private industry? Well that may be another story. . For young people the workplace is a fundamentally
different place to what I entered over 35 years ago. The arrival of internships
puts permanent workers under threat. Internships are unpaid work. When I
graduated from college I believed I had a right to a paid job. Nowadays, you
need a masters and an internship and then you might be lucky to get paid something
decent by the age of 25. Workers now are cannon fodder to a different set of workplace
relationship, relationships that works just one way only.
Add to that the reality that the aspirations to borrow to
own a home is now harder to achieve than in my day against a backdrop of
greater brand awareness among you people and rampant consumerism. Never has
there been greater expectations within our young, yet less ability to meet
those expectations in our society than ever before. As the bar for young people
goes higher and higher more young people see themselves as failing. Is it any
wonder that well being and mental health are being emphasised like never before
in the new Junior Cycle?
So we have smaller workplaces, greater flexibility, more
isolation and greater expectation and pressure. Unions have to address what is
going on out there in the lives of young workers if they hope to remain
relevant. Friday’s exercise was part of that change in direction on the part of
ICTU. I welcome it, it was worthwhile, a first step for many young people and
one that will in time lead to more.
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