Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I commend Deputy Higgins on tabling this motion and confirm my support for it. In 1913, Dublin employers locked out workers to force them to leave Larkin's union. Dublin workers fought an heroic battle but were not immediately successful. They lost the battle but Irish workers, inspired by the strikers, won the war to join a union of their choice, that is, the right to free association. However, 100 years later, the Irish Labour Party in Government, through the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, passed an Act to pressurise workers to leave unions opposed to pay cuts and to join compliant unions. The Labour Party has rolled back Larkin's achievements by reducing and limiting the right to be in a trade union of one's choice. If workers do not transfer to compliant unions, they will suffer heavier pay cuts. The Labour Party is attacking freedom of association.

William Martin Murphy demanded that workers sign a document undertaking that they leave or refuse to join Larkin's union. Today, in 2013, Deputy Howlin is demanding that trade unionists sign a different piece of paper, this time registering an agreement with the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, that will guarantee cuts in pay and conditions. The Labour Party might say that the trade union leadership has agreed to this or, indeed, has colluded in it, and it is correct about that - it has. In 1913, Larkin had to lead workers out of a compliant union, the National Union of Dock Labourers and set up the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, ITGWU, the forerunner of SIPTU. It is deeply regrettable that the current leadership of SIPTU, the former ITGWU, has refused to oppose the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest, FEMPI, legislation. However, I am confident that members of both compliant and non-compliant unions will find a way, as Larkin and his colleagues did, to stand up to employers, including the State, despite the treachery of the Labour Party in going over to the side of the employers.

To commemorate 1913 appropriately, members of Labour Party affiliated trade unions, many of whom do not even know they are paying a subscription to the Labour Party, can and should withdraw their subscriptions. They can do so legally and I call on them to do it. If they are members of a union that is affiliated to the Labour Party, they should write to that union to say they no longer want to pay any part of their subscription to the Labour Party. We also need a trade union recognition Bill that makes it mandatory for employers to recognise trade unions. A key element of the 1913 Lock-out was the belief that an injury to one was an injury to all. Certainly, the industrial relations legislation which outlaws supports and secondary striking should be repealed immediately. There is no doubt that the events of 1913 were a very important part of Irish history. Support should be provided to communities in Dublin and elsewhere to commemorate the centenary of the 1913 Lock-out.

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