Thursday at Conference 2024 proved a busy day, with elections, motions and keynote speeches all on the agenda.

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan addressed conference on Thursday morning. In a wide-ranging speech Kevin declared that Fórsa will take a lead role in building a better Ireland. He said: “Everything we have, we won by organising.  Now we have to do more than we ever have before. We need to mobilise on the issues that will make our country a better place to live and work.”

There’s more details on his speech in a story below, and you can read the full text here. Media coverage of the speech can be read here in The Irish Times and here in the Irish Independent.

You can watch coverage of conference on yesterday’s TV news on RTÉ's lunchtime news (from 14:20) and on the main evening SixOne bulletin (from 19:20).
 

Four of our members working in local authorities spoke to both the Irish Times and the Irish Independent about the experience of dealing with aggressive and abusive behaviour by service users and far right agitators. Rose, Michael, Sorcha and Róisín eloquently told of the impact this workplace harassment has had on them and their colleagues, with Rose saying “It’s not our job to be censors”.

Read the articles here and here. 

Conference also welcomed two international keynote speakers on Thursday.  Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and Fórsa member, congratulated members on their achievements, particularly in regard to the campaigns to protect library workers and for school secretaries pay and conditions. She told delegates that every union in Europe is connected, members are like links in a chain. 

Speaking ahead of the European elections on 7th June 2024, she said: “Workers and our trade unions are the beating heart of Europe, our activists and shop stewards are our front-line defenders, standing up every day for the pay, terms and conditions of our members but also for the fundamental human right to belong to a trade union and to act collectively in our defence of working people.”

Daniel Bertossa, president of Public Services International (PSI) spoke about the work public sector unions across the world do to protect their members. 

In the morning motions on pay were debated, with motions on new entrants pay scales being carried, among a number of motions on pay provisions. Later in the day internal union organisation motions were taken in closed session. Delegates debated issues ranging from the use of plain English in union communications, the creation of LGBTQI+ officers and how the union can best support reps. International policy motions closed off the day's debates with the majority of motions focused on the war in Palestine.

In election news delegates elected Martin Walsh President and Michael Smyth was elected as Treasurer.

It was standing room only at the fringe meetings held by the Skills Academy and the Membership Unit. These sessions provided members with an opportunity to hear from union staff about the ways in which they can be supported both in skills development, and to recruit more members to the union. The Skills Academy launched their mentoring programme and their new training calendar, which you can access here.