Fórsa members' news bulletin

Watch our video from the National Ploughing Championships 2026

Amidst the kaleidoscope of Irish society roaming the fields in Screggan, Fórsa members have their minds focused firmly on industrial action. 

At the Fórsa stand at this year’s National Ploughing Championships, members are arriving from across the public service. Some stop for information, while others want to talk about what happens next, and, according to senior membership officer Khalid El Busaidy, plenty of prospective members are stopping too. 

“There’s a great buzz here, as always, great crowds. We’ve been engaging with members, and we’ve also had prospective members who work in the public service.” 

It’s Fórsa’s third year at the Ploughing, and Khalid says the scale of the event gives the union an unusual opportunity to meet workers from across its membership in one place. 

“We’ve come across people working in the education sector, Special Needs Assistants, in the local authorities, and in the Civil Service as well. So, there’s a whole range of workers coming in here today and having an engagement with us.” 

Last year, Fórsa’s team at the ploughing were fresh off the picket following the seven-day strike by school secretaries and caretakers, with plenty of visitors keen to talk about their experiences on strike. This year, conversations everywhere keep coming back to the cost of living.  

Jaws drop 

And the reasons are obvious. Having been spoilt with fine weather all summer, talk of the forecast at this year’s Ploughing is quickly cast aside. There’s another subject on the tip of everyone’s tongue and that’s the astonishingly expensive food that’s being served across the site.  

One Fórsa staff member reports being charged €7 for a bag of chips. “They wanted €8 for one with salt and vinegar, and someone else paid a fiver for a mug of tea.” 

Jaws literally drop. Is it any wonder that last month, almost 90,000 Fórsa members working across the civil and public service voted in a national ballot for industrial action. The result was decisive: 96.6% of those who voted backed industrial action, up to and including strike action, on a turnout of 72.6%. More than 62,000 members voted yes. 

Ready for action 

Chair of the Civil Service division Jean Taylor is spending the day moving around the site meeting Civil Service members at their own stands and workplaces. Jean says that the ballot result matches what she is hearing on the ground. 

“I think people are just fed up. They’re ready for action. They’re sick of the empty promises.” 

“We’re going to the tents where the Civil Service members are working and manning the tents. We’re giving them membership benefit information. We’re telling them all the great things that are involved in being a Fórsa member.” 

And she has already signed up two new members. 

Back at the Fórsa stand, Khalid says the message being brought to members and the wider public is straightforward. 

“We’re giving out the Better Deal leaflets. We had a ballot just concluded early this month, and members voted overwhelmingly for industrial action.” 

First experience of industrial action 

Industrial action is due to begin at the end of September with many employers already notified and instructions issued. But Jean says there is also organising work to do before then. 

For many younger or newer members, this will be their first experience of industrial action. She says that means union organisation and communication in individual workplaces matter more than ever. 

“There’s a nervousness about it because they don’t understand, they don’t know where they are. And this is why it’s more important now than ever that we have every member in every office, in every part of the country.” 

The protection of a big union 

One encounter at the Ploughing seemed to capture the other side of that story. Jean met a member just seven months into the job who had joined Fórsa almost immediately after coming from the private sector. 

“He said, ‘I’m only seven months in the job. I joined up my second day.’ He said, ‘I came from the private sector. I was very badly treated, so I signed up.’” 

For him, she says, membership had already changed how he felt at work. 

“He said: ‘Now I feel I have more confidence because I have the protection of a big union organisation behind me.’” 

It’s why Jean believes the coming weeks are about more than preparing existing members for industrial action. They’re also an opportunity to organise workers who have remained outside the union. 

“It doesn’t matter if you’re new in the door or you’ve been in the job and you’re nearly on your way out the door. This is the time. Please join your union.” 

Back at the stand, Khalid says the Better Deal message extends beyond the workers preparing to take action: “We are asking everybody out there to support workers and communities for a better deal.” 

An energy 

For Jean, what she is seeing at the Ploughing reflects something that has been building across workplaces during months of conversations, organising and balloting. 

“There’s an energy there that we haven’t seen in a long time.” 

And she says that energy is being felt across the union - among officials, workplace representatives and members on the ground. 

“They are hungry for action. And they want this government to stand up and look after the workers who are keeping the country afloat on a daily basis.” 

Members can access materials to boost visibility of the upcoming industrial action in their workplace here and read all about Ready for Action week here.