Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Once again, this is a Bill that has had to be brought before the Dáil because the Irish Government persists with this illusion that people have the right to union representation. It is Orwellian that you have the right to join a union but your employer does not have to recognise it, so you really do not have a right. If the Government is serious about workers' rights, this is a key one. In the early 1980s, about 60% of our workforce were in unions. Now it is one in four. The trade union movement is largely becoming public sector. It is becoming more female because women workers are often located in the public sector. There are now more women than men in trade unions, ironically.

The people who are being particularly ill-served are young people and migrant workers, who also make up a huge part of our workforce. However, over two thirds of non-union members aged 16 to 24 would vote to establish a union if they could. They are positively disposed towards being in unions. Young workers are significantly less secure and more anxious in their work than older counterparts. One in five young workers are worried about losing their job and having a reduction in pay if they join a union. Half of young workers aged 16 to 34 are worried about a reduction in their pay in particular. That survey was done by UCD. It shows how positively disposed towards unions people actually are. However, they are not joining them. I think there are a number of factors there. There is the anti-union culture that pervades private sector workforces. We also have to say that the trade union leadership should be actively recruiting workers in a much more serious way.

We should look at a few things. A positive aspect of this Bill is that it obliges employers to further engage with workers, after recognition, on their wages and conditions. Unions have suffered extreme losses of membership due to the anti-union sentiment, particularly of American multinationals which are consciously attracted here by our Government, yet a message is sent out that people do not join a union and if they do, they will not be tolerated. That is a conscious policy by the Government.

There is an EU directive, which the Government has not implemented, on adequate minimum wages in the EU. It obliges governments to assist where less than 70% are covered by collective bargaining. The Government is meant to make that easier but it ignores this. Owen Reidy, who is the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said, "The government voted for this directive in Brussels over two years ago but has ignored it and obfuscated in Dublin ever since. The Directive is about the state being obliged to promote collective bargaining so workers and employers can negotiate in the workplace and at sectoral level to improve living conditions." There are many other quotes about it from leading figures in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, saying how unacceptable it is that the Irish Government has not implemented that directive.

I raise strikes for trade union recognition too. I have been involved in supporting workers on such strikes over many years. Companies like Aldi and Lidl, which now proliferate through the country, have a conscious anti-union policy. I supported young workers in Aldi in the early 2000s, who joined the union on Parnell Street and were sacked. In theory, they were not sacked for joining the union because companies cannot do that legally. They find other means to sack them, such as giving them work they cannot do and creating difficult conditions. That is the modus operandi of companies, to flout our Irish law. The retail sector was traditionally very unionised, because workers fought for those rights. There is now a significant anti-union policy, not just in Aldi and Lidl, but in the two big private sector employers in this country, Tesco and Dunnes. Workers there have long-standing trade union memberships but the companies are actively not recognising the workers and their union.

In Tesco, in December 2024, members of Mandate trade union launched public protests following Tesco management's decision to deny workers their right to be represented by their union and its refusal to agree an adequate pay increase. Tesco management is refusing to collectively bargain and is instead imposing its own pay awards on the workers, not what the union is actually fighting for.

This was not due to lack of profits of course - Tesco sales profits rose by 10% but workers only got pay increases of less than 4%. One of the Mandate representatives said the company's actions could only be seen as a clear act of bad faith and textbook union-busting tactics.

I also want to mention Dunnes Stores, an Irish company with a rotten tradition of dealing with trade unions and workers. We know this from going back to the anti-apartheid strike and it has continued to have this policy for 40 years. In 2015, Dunnes workers had to hold a ballot for the right to have their union engaged with by Dunnes. The company also refused - I do not know how the Minister of State feels about this - to recognise Labour Court recommendations. We all know Labour Court recommendations are not compulsory. Workers can also reject them but when they do we hear nothing but abuse of those workers in the media. That does not happen when employers reject them.

It is incredible that very recently, in December 2024, Mandate urged Dunnes Stores to engage on outstanding elements of the comprehensive 2024 pay and benefits claims. The 5% increase they got was a win for Dunnes workers but Mandate highlighted the lack of progress on paid maternity and paternity leave. A growing number of competitors in the retail sector have introduced paid leave for new parents and Mandate believes it is time for Dunnes Stores to do the same. This is one of the biggest companies in the country refusing to give the most basic rights to its workers, particularly women workers who make up a large percentage of its workforce.

We also know the last-minute contracts are designed to militate against trade union membership and recognition because it is very difficult for a young or new worker brought in to know what their contracts are. We know workers with union membership are not allowed on the shop floor in many of these places. Of course, we also have to be realistic here. We want workers to join unions but those unions must be fighting unions. The Debenhams workers were a highly unionised workforce and look what happened to them. Unfortunately, because they received no support from their union leadership, they had to do it all themselves and self-organise during a pandemic in a very difficult situation where the company had bolted and left them.

As I have said before, the Government needs to do a number if things to ensure workers never again lose even their redundancy, never mind the paltry claim given to them by the courts. We need fighting trade unions. Much of the union leadership is hiding behind the fact that there are anti-union laws. They can organise against anti-union laws. The Industrial Relations Act, a significant impediment to workers having the right to effectively organise, can be breached and challenged. That is what you do to get rid of unjust laws. Again, the Debenhams workers and others did it by having mass pickets when the stock was being taken out of shops.

It is critical that the trade union leadership makes itself relevant again in this era because it is clear young workers and migrant workers want to join unions. I am assisting migrant healthcare assistants, as the Minister of State will know, who are joining the Unite trade union. It is very positive to see this for migrant workers but there also needs to be a fighting lead given by all the unions to recruit in these sectors and actually represent them. They need to challenge unjust and anti-union and anti-worker laws that successive governments have kept in place.

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