Three public sector unions are set to open talks on a merger which would create the second largest trade union in the State in two years' time, The Irish Times has learned.
The executives of the three unions - IMPACT, the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) and the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) - have agreed to put identical motions to their annual conferences in the next two months approving the opening of the talks.
The talks are to be given until mid-2006 to agree the creation of a powerful 72,000-member union. The outcome of the talks will be put to the three union conferences in 2006. If approved there, it will be put to a vote of the three unions' membership.
Sources in two of the unions confirmed the move yesterday but declined to elaborate. Some union branches were informed of the plan last Friday with the remainder expected to receive notification today or tomorrow.
Trade union sources believe the talks will be successful, although there are differences between the unions on some issues. The CPSU, representing lower grade civil servants, is more sceptical than the other two about the social partnership process which it believes is of greater benefit to higher graded civil and public servants.
There are also concerns among some in the CPSU, which has 13,000 members, and the PSEU, which has 9,000, that their identity could be lost through merging with the 50,000-member IMPACT union.
A successful merger would make the new 72,000-member union the second largest in the State, allowing it to overtake AMICUS, itself the product of a merger between MSF and the AEEU in 2001. It would still lag a long way behind the State's biggest union, SIPTU, which has more than 200,000 members.
The new union would represent civil and public servants at junior clerical and middle management levels, and would bring together in one union many staff in a variety of semi-State bodies and also in Eircom, in which all three unions currently have members.
The common motion agreed by the unions' executives contains an "enabling memorandum" authorising them to open talks. It also sets out the goals of the talks and the advantages of a merger including the "rationalization" of structures.
The three unions already work together in dealing with a number of employers and issues, particularly in relation to the benchmarking process. The integration of a number of grades in the tax office is believed to have added impetus to the discussions about a merger. The three unions have members there, and the integration of grades leading to the transfer of some workers from one to another led many to see a strong logic in a merger.
The PSEU conference is scheduled for next month, with IMPACT and the CPSU holding theirs in May. If they approve the opening of talks, the unions' executives will set up negotiating teams to discuss how a merged union would operate.