TRADE UNIONS have opposed proposals backed by Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore to end the unions' funding of the party and their right to bloc votes at party conferences.
Labour had intended to hold a special conference in Kilkenny at the end of next month to decide on a major reform of the party, drafted by the party's 21st Century Commission over the last year.
However, the party leader announced yesterday that the conference would be "refocused to deal with the economic situation" and that consideration of the plans should be left until next March.
The reform commission, led by former government special adviser Greg Sparks, had made significant progress, Mr Gilmore said, but it was unlikely that it would have completed its work in time for the Kilkenny meeting.
The Irish Times understands that a major disagreement emerged last Saturday within the commission over plans that the unions should no longer fund the party directly, or enjoy bloc votes.
The scale of the disagreement is such that a seven-strong committee, including Róisín Shortall, Amicus official Gerry Shanahan and Siptu leader Jack O'Connor, has been tasked with finding a compromise solution.
The Siptu leader last week ordered his union's representative on the commission, Lorraine Mulligan, to oppose the reform plans, while Unite's Mick O'Reilly was also strongly opposed.
The draft recommendations put to the meeting would have ended direct payments by the unions to the party, though the two would co-fund a new think tank.
In a letter yesterday to members of the party's national executive council (NEC), Mr Gilmore indicated the only issue delaying the report was one of timing, and not content. "The commission will not now be in a position to finalise their report for submission to the NEC by October 10th," he wrote.
"I believe that the party membership . . . must be given adequate time to consider the commission's report . . . It is my intention therefore to bring a proposal to the next meeting of the Labour Party's NEC that detailed proposal of the commission's report should be deferred to the following Labour Party conference that will be held in Mullingar next March."
If the proposals are accepted they would substantially increase the party leader's powers, since they would reduce the size and influence of the NEC, and see it controlled by the parliamentary party.
