The general secretary of the British-based Transport and General Workers' Union, Mr Bill Morris, has been accused of undermining free speech and other trade union core values by refusing to allow the union's senior Irish official, Mr Mick O'Reilly, to address a summer school last weekend.
The secretary of the Desmond Greaves Summer School, Mr Anthony Coughlan, has written to Mr Morris protesting at the decision to prevent Mr O'Reilly from addressing a symposium.
Mr O'Reilly, who was suspended last June as regional secretary of the ATGWU, has been forbidden to comment on his suspension or speak at public meetings. He has also been forbidden to attend the Northern Ireland Civic Forum. The Northern Ireland organiser of the union, Mr Eugene McGlone, has also been suspended. This follows a critical report on their handling of affairs in the union's Irish subsidiary, the ATGWU.
Both are to respond to the report's findings at the union's London headquarters, Transport House, next Tuesday and Wednesday. In his letter Mr Coughlan told Mr Morris: "There was disappointment almost amounting to consternation amongst the capacity audience attending the final session of the summer school on Sunday when it was announced that Mick O'Reilly had in effect been forbidden to speak at it.
"He had spoken at Greaves summer schools in the past, and while we became aware after the programme was arranged that he was in dispute with yourself and your colleagues on various matters, the invitation brochure did not indicate that he was speaking on behalf of his union or that he was its Irish officer.
"In the event, my colleagues and I would like to say that Mick O'Reilly's inability to speak at the Greaves Summer School because of the instruction he received on behalf of yourself and your colleagues was a sad day for free speech, fairness of treatment and the rational consideration of issues, which had traditionally been core values of the British and Irish trade union and labour movements."
Mr Morris declined to comment on the letter yesterday.