The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is expected to expel one of its largest unions within the next few days. The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Unions was given until December 31st, 2001 to comply with an ICTU directive not to recruit electricians in the Republic of Ireland and hand back a dozen members "poached" from the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union last year.
Formal notice of expulsion is expected to be given to the general secretary of the AEEU, Sir Ken Jackson, when he meets the ICTU general secretary, Mr David Begg, over the next few days. Both men have met before and the AEEU has always refused to accept the congress ruling. That situation is not expected to change.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the AEEU and another British-based union, MSF, amalgamated on January 1st to become AMICUS. It will be the second largest union in both Ireland and Britain, with a total Irish membership of 65,000.
AMICUS is due to register with the Registrar of Friendly Societies in Dublin next week and there had been fears that MSF would disaffiliate from congress because of its new relationship with the AEEU.
However, the Irish secretary of MSF, Mr John Tierney, said yesterday that the organisational fusion of the two unions would not be completed until the end of 2003 and MSF would remain affiliated to congress in the meantime."We don't believe in splitting away from congress and we will do whatever we can to persuade our colleagues to come back in," he said.
No comment was available from the AEEU yesterday but AMICUS sources said the issue had been discussed at the first joint meeting of the Irish executives of the new union last Monday and would also be on the agenda of the next meeting. Sir Ken Jackson has told Irish executive members he expects to meet Mr Begg again before the expulsion order is served.
No one is optimistic that the AEEU will change its mind. It has defied similar rulings from the British Trades Union Congress in the past and tended to recruit members across different sectors regardless of traditional "spheres of influence" agreements between unions.
The decision to expel the AEEU from congress was taken by delegates at the biennial conference of ICTU in Bundoran last July.
However, a six months extension was given to allow Mr Begg and the congress executive to persuade the AEEU to abide by the directive.
Loss of ICTU membership means the AEEU loses representation on all congress bodies and will not be a participant in talks on any agreement to succeed the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. There are fears the AEEU will pursue a go-it-alone policy outside congress and continue to seek recruits from other unions.