Labour debate: Sinn Féin delegates voted against a motion calling on party members in Siptu not to pay the trade union's political levy to the Labour Party through their subscriptions.
The proposal, from the party's ardchomhairle, "instructs all Sinn Féin members who are members of Siptu to sign out of the scheme whereby political affiliation monies deducted from their Siptu membership annual subs are given to the Irish Labour party".
However, the conference voted against it after a speaker said the motion should "ask" rather than "instruct" party members, because that would be like the era of the "machinations of the Workers' Party" in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.
John Dwyer, who proposed the motion during a debate on workers' rights and trade unions, appealed to the trade union leadership to look at its strategy of "unconditional support for one political party". This meant members were "truly taken for granted".
A delegate opposed to the motion said the proposal was not as it seemed, it focused on one union and on the basis of "bad drafting", he asked delegates to vote against it.
He said "we don't live in an Alice in Wonderland" world and it was a "very dangerous situation" when a political party moved to instruct its members on how they should act.
Earlier there was applause for Mandate member Joanne Delaney, dismissed from her Dunnes Stores job in a row over wearing her trade union badge on her uniform.
