SOME 10 years ago, when Mr Phil Flynn proposed that the Local Government and Public Services Union enter a new national agreement, conference delegates resoundingly rejected the idea. A lot has happened since then.
For a start the LGPSU no longer exists. It has been subsumed, along with the Union of Professional and Technical Civil Servants into IMPACT. The new, 30,000 strong union contains professional, administrative clerical and man workers throughout the public service. As such it occupies a strategic position in any negotiations on public sector pay.
Like his predecessor, IMPACT's new general secretary, Mr Peter McLoone, will have his work cut out persuading members to stick with national agreements.
Even though the PCW is almost two years old, only a handful of members in the commercial semi state companies have concluded by deals. No agreement has been reached with local authorities, health boards and Civil Service, with the exception of Wildlife Rangers working for the Office of Public Works. The rangers have no pay linkage with any other group, even the more numerous park attendants who work for the various local authorities.
Delegates will also be mindful that have tended to leave public service workers behind in the pay stakes. Tomorrow they will be presented with a discussion document which is expected to show that, for all their faults, national agreements still offer the best way forward.
There are more than 20 motions down for debate on national, agreements, all of them critical of the Government. Several call on the union not to enter into agreement until all pay claims' under the PCW have been dealt with satisfactorily.
At today's session the recruitment embargo, taxation, unemployment, poverty and its links with crime are up for a discussion. The probation and welfare section is calling for family law teams to be set up within the Probation and Welfare Service to help tackle the link between crime and family breakdown.
There is also a motion deploring the return to violence in Northern Ireland and calling for a reinstatement of the IRA ceasefire, along with all party talks.