New Ictu general secretary Owen Reidy targets recruitment of young members as priority

Owen Reidy has been ratified as the new general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu).

Mr Reidy, the outgoing assistant general secretary, is originally from Donegal and has 24 years experience in the Irish trade union movement.

He was ratified as the new general secretary at the Ictu’s executive committee on Wednesday morning after Patricia King stepped down from the post earlier this month.

Mr Reidy said the recent European Union directive on adequate minimum wages has the potential to “radically transform” industrial relations in Ireland and Europe.

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Last month the EU Parliament adopted new legislation, which set out that minimum wages in all EU countries should allow for decent living and working standards, and member states should promote collective bargaining for pay.

Mr Reidy said the biggest challenge facing trade unions currently was turning the trend of declining density seen over the last 20 to 30 years.

He said a recent report showed that 52 per cent of 16 to 34 year-olds weren’t in a trade union but resonated with their values and wanted to join a union.

“I think if we have the right strategic approach, we can reach out to the new generation of workers and build our movement, both with that directive and the high level group report [on collective bargaining],” he said.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but there are huge opportunities and we’re determined as a collective leadership to do that. We want to make sure that every worker in Ireland that wants to be organised has the right to be organised and I think we can achieve that with those two instruments.”

Ictu President Kevin Callinan said with Irish and European collective bargaining structures set to be overhauled, “we are entering an exciting new phase for the trade union movement”.

“As general secretary, Owen Reidy will bring fresh energy to the task of ensuring that these changes happen in a way that produces real improvements in the pay and conditions of workers,” he said.

“In his previous roles with Siptu and as the lead congress official for Northern Ireland, he has shown that he has the qualities to unite the movement in pursuit of such core objectives.”