The Irish Congress of Trade Unions came in for strong criticism at the conference for its failure to secure a guarantee of trade union recognition from employers. A divisional organiser, Mr Jim Moloney, described the Partnership 2000 agreement as "a disgrace".
The trade union movement must fight "tooth and nail" for union recognition and consign employers who opposed it "to hell". A Galway delegate, Mr Pat Hardiman, said a recent study showed that in the past two years only two out of 32 foreign companies announcing major job creation initiatives in Ireland had agreed to recognise trade unions. "There isn't much point in social partnership if one partner isn't going to recognise the other," he said.
A divisional organiser, Mr Jim O'Connor, said that even where unions were organising members and securing better terms, companies were then conceding the same terms in non unionised branches. When Mandate went to these branches they found employees saw little advantage in joining a union and paying subscriptions for conditions they were already enjoying.
Mandate passed motions calling for the trade union movement to make union recognition part of "a national consensus" which would be legally binding on employers. It also passed a motion calling for the ICTU to develop "an integrated trade union membership recruitment campaign in consultation and co operation with affiliated unions".