With teachers leaving the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and inter-union strife in companies such as Aer Lingus and Iarnrod Eireann, the trade union movement needed "solidarity and commitment now more than ever", ICTU's general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, told the Communications Workers' Union conference in Tralee.
Mr Cassells, who is standing down as ICTU general secretary in July, said that, in a period of major change, the CWU had been radical and progressive. "It is a union that can embrace change because of its deep roots in a radical tradition that allows it to identify change that is needed from change that is bad.
"You have embraced change by seeking real power and influence in the companies you are involved in," he said yesterday. When asked by trade unionists where social partnership was working, Mr Cassells told them "to look at the CWU".
At the same time, the CWU had not rested on its laurels or relied on what it was achieving in Eircom and An Post by way of Employee Share Ownership Trusts (ESOTs). It had gone out and recruited vulnerable workers in the private sector when many other unions were not even discussing how to reach these groups, Mr Cassells said.
Earlier, delegates heard about new members in call centres whose toilet breaks were monitored, where bank holiday premiums were not paid and where holidays were changed or cancelled without notice. Victimisation was rife and the union was only now beginning to win recognition in many of these companies.
Later, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, told the conference the Postal (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, to allow the transformation plan for An Post and a 14.9 per cent ESOT to proceed would be passed before the Dail's summer recess.
Like the similar Bill to provide shares to ESB workers, passed four weeks ago, the measure would have cross-party support.
She was committed to seeing a situation where "the employees of every semi-state company can become shareholders".