Irish Congress of Trade Unions expels UK-based union

In February 2002, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions formally expelled the UK-based Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) for refusing to conform with a directive forbidding the recruitment of electricians in the Republic of Ireland. The expulsion coincided with a merger between AEEU and another UK-based union, Manufacturing Science Finance (MSF) , which has made matters more complex.

In early February 2002 the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) expelled the UK-based union, the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU). AEEU was expelled for not complying with an ICTU directive not to recruit electricians in the Republic of Ireland and refusing to 'hand back' 39 electricians employed at the Cadburys food company who were 'poached' from the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) in 1998.

Dispute

TEEU claimed that the 'poaching' of the electricians by AEEU constituted a breach of a 'sphere of influence' agreement between the two unions. TEEU suggested that, under this agreement, a condition of AEEU being allowed to operate in the Irish Republic was that it should not attempt to organise electricians there. ICTU backed the TEEU objections and ordered AEEU to conform. AEEU strongly rejected the ICTU demands, arguing that the 39 electricians concerned had voluntarily applied to AEEU for membership. AEEU also suggested that an engineering and electrical union should be free to recruit electricians if it so wishes. The tensions were fuelled by the fact that there has been a certain degree of conflict between AEEU and TEEU over the years.

The initial decision to expel AEEU was taken by delegates at the ICTU conference in July 2001. However, AEEU was granted a six-month period to comply with the directive. When the deadline passed by, the expulsion notice was formally issued to the general secretary of AEEU, Sir Ken Jackson, by the general secretary of ICTU, David Begg. Last-minute talks between the pair failed to resolve the issue.

Merger complicate matters

The expulsion is complicated by the fact that AEEU and another UK-based union, Manufacturing Science Finance (MSF), amalgamated on 1 January 2002 to become Amicus, though the merger is not due to be completely operational until the end of 2003. Amicus will be the second-largest union in both Britain and Ireland. It will have approximately 1.1 million members in the UK and approximately 60,000 members in the island of Ireland. AEEU members form the great majority of the overall membership of the new union across Britain and Ireland, and thus, AEEU seems likely to have much greater control over the terms of the merger than MSF, which is arguably the 'junior partner' in the process.

There have been fears expressed in some quarters that MSF will have to disaffiliate from ICTU as a result of the merger with the AEEU. If MSF were to disaffiliate, this would mean that the 60,000-strong Amicus union in Ireland would be outside ICTU. MSF in Ireland appears to be unwilling to leave ICTU, but if this is what AEEU policy dictates, it appears that little can be done about it. Disaffiliation from ICTU would mean loss of access to representation on all policy-making bodies and non-participation in national agreements.

Commentary

The merger between the UK-based unions, AEEU and MSF, to form the 'mega-union' Amicus, will have important implications for the structure of the Irish trade union movement. In particular, the recent expulsion of AEEU from ICTU and the likelihood that this will result in the disaffiliation of MSF (which is the junior partner in the merger) by the end of 2003, means that a large number of Irish union members may be outside the ICTU 'tent'. The loss of MSF, which had become an active member of ICTU, would represent a significant setback for the latter. When the powerful teachers' union, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) - which left ICTU in January 2000 (IE0005212N) - is included, there may be as many as 80,000 non-ICTU union members by the end of 2003. The figure may be even higher if other unions are emboldened to seek independence from ICTU. (Tony Dobbins, CEROP, UCD)