I remember unions. Why would they be in the news now?
Next week, the three teacher unions, with 85,000 members between them, hold conferences in Killarney, Wexford and Kilkenny. With inflation on the rise and public pay talks looming, this is unlikely to be a quiet conference season. And other unions are limbering up too.
Unions were big in the 1980’s. Where are they now?
Maybe you work in retail, hospitality or another area where membership has declined significantly, or in tech/pharma where gaining collective bargaining rights is often an issue. But overall union numbers are not far from their heyday and have grown in recent years. Still, there are comfortably more than twice as many people in employment now as in 1980. This means the proportion in a union has dropped from almost two-thirds, 62 per cent, to a little above a quarter, about 27 per cent.
So, if union members are not in hospitality or tech, where are they working?
Disproportionately in the public sector, where they have benefited from significant hiring in recent years, especially in areas like health, education and the Civil Service.
What’s the story on pay?
The current public sector deal expires in June. Talks about talks on a new one are starting. The old deal increased wages by at least 10.25 per cent over 2½ years while some lower paid staff received raises totalling 17 per cent, significantly higher than most private sector workers.
READ MORE
So, they’ll be looking for more of that then?
Tricky. New data shows inflation jumped to 3.6 per cent in the year to March. With no end to war in the Middle East, nobody can predict with much certainty where it is going from here.
The upshot is both sides are wary of talks at the wrong time. Unions fear agreeing a new deal, only to see Middle East ructions send prices soaring again. The Government is wary of striking a deal when inflation is high, only to see it fall back if war settles with a calming effect on prices.
Safe to say, however, that union delegates will be throwing some tasty numbers about in motions intended to dictate where their leaders pitch their demands . How realistic such numbers will be and the impact they actually have on the negotiators and the final outcome is another matter.
And what about membership in the private sector?
It’s a mixed bag but fewer than one in five private sector workers are unionised.
Unions had hoped an EU directive on the minimum wage would make the landscape more favourable. While that seems less likely now, many in the movement cite research suggesting many young people would like to be represented.
