The Irish Congress of Trade Unions must spell out clearly to the Government and employers that future co-operation from the trade unions depends on resolving the issue of union recognition, a senior Mandate officer has warned.
Mr Maurice Sheehan also expressed concern that the ICTU was prepared to accept a "watered-down" version of that right. Mr Sheehan was speaking at a workshop on union recognition at Mandate's biennial conference yesterday. He said that disputes at a series of companies, such as Pat the Baker, Nolan Transport, Dunnes Stores, the Early Learning Centre, Cramptons and Ryanair had made the issue central to the future of social partnership.
He said there was growing concern that the ICTU leadership was tacitly accepting that recognition would not be pursued across all sectors of the economy.
"Many people were alarmed to note the comments of the IDA chief executive, Mr Kieran McGowan, that there was an acceptance of the non-union culture in certain high-tech sector companies from the west coast of America," Mr Sheehan said.
"Mr McGowan maintained there was complete acceptance by the ICTU of that position.
"As far as Mandate is concerned the right to belong to a union is a fundamental human right which can only be realised through collective bargaining between employers and unions. Neither the IDA nor the social partners have authority to water down that right for workers.
"Many senior trade unionists at the beginning of this era of social partnership naively believed that in return for conceding constraints on the right to strike contained in the 1990 Industrial Relations Act, there would be major concessions by the Government and employers on the question of trade union recognition. Not so.
"There are also those who believe that the problem will fade away. But they got their answer at Dublin Airport on the weekend of March 7th and 8th, when thousands of workers shut the airport down in support of the Ryanair workers."
The stakes in the dispute at Dublin Airport are high, Mr Sheehan said, and workers throughout the country could take pride in the stance taken by the 39 Ryanair baggage-handlers and the thousands of other workers who supported them.
At last year's ICTU conference the general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, had warned employers that either there was genuine social partnership in the workplace or no partnership at national level.
"Congress needs to be far more visible and vocal so that workers will be confident that their interests in respect of this issue remain high on the national agenda," Mr Sheehan said.
The Mandate conference called for an "all-out" campaign for union recognition. It passed a motion saying that the next national wage agreement should be rejected unless union recognition formed an integral part of it.
Legislation should be introduced making it compulsory on employers to recognise workers' rights "to be fully represented by a trade union. Such legislation would give shop stewards facilities to represent their members and paid time off for training."