On Tuesday 10th September trade union activists and anti-racism campaigners descended upon the Gresham Hotel, Dublin, for ICTU’s Stronger Together: Anti-racist Workplaces & Trade Unions Conference.

The conference was held to report on the past year’s activity for the ICTU anti-racism project, as well as to discuss the challenges of tackling racism in the workplace. The day saw contributions from academics, trade unionists, and Joe O’Brien TD, Minster for state with responsibility for community development and charities.

Fórsa was well represented among contributors with Kevin Ward, member, Khalid El-Busaidy, membership officer, and Andy Pike, Head of Education Division participating in panels.

The tone for the day was set early in the opening speech by Owen Reidy. “The key issue that comes out of the report is as a movement, we have work to do” he said “we need the maturity and capacity to do better.”

The sentiment was later driven home by Andy Pike who opened by saying “I think we need to note what we’re not doing well.” He continued “We didn’t prepare sufficiently for the rise of the far-right. We were complacent, we let ourselves believe Ireland isn’t a racist country, not like the US and UK.

“We were slow to respond.”

Andy Pike, Head of Education Division 

The second panel consisted of migrant workers who have undertaken the ICTU anti-racism project’s Leadership Programme for Minority Ethnic and Migrant Workers. The panelists echoed Andy’s concerns about the rise of the far right.

Aakansha Surve, NUJ, lamented “the Ireland I lived in before the riots is very different to the one I live in now.” 

Kevin Ward warned against thinking racism in Ireland is about the far right and nothing else: “It’s the same challenges, nothing’s really changed. Embedded in attitudes to migrant workers” Kevin said “we always have to compete to be accepted.”

Khalid gave life to his panel-mate’s points with stories of his experiences living in Ireland. How he faced discrimination in the workplace because of his nationality, the love he had for the innocent curiosity of Irish people in the 1990s, and the terror of trying to make it home from Fórsa’s head office at Nerney’s Court, a stone’s throw from O’Connell Street, on the night of the riots.

From left to right: Dr. Lucy Michael, Aakansha Surve, Kevin Ward, Khalid El Busaidy

More than simply tackling the far right and fighting racism in the workplace, unions were called upon to support migrant workers and engage with migrant communities. 

Dr. Lucy Michael, Lucy Michael Research, Training and Consultancy, noted “Unions must be welcoming to support racism cases. It must be consistent; it must be enthusiastically sought out.”

She went on to describe how this would create a mutually beneficial relationship. She cited research which shows migrant workers helped by unions become enthusiastic contributors to unions.

Research also showed that unions are lacking expertise when it comes to discrimination cases on the grounds of race and/or nationality. Kate Turner, WRC, in her presentation shared the unsettling figure that last year 18.6% of employment case were on grounds of race, the majority of which were unsuccessful.

ICTU’s anti-racism project will continue into a second year. Dr David Carroll, project coordinator, noted that the large number of requests to host trainings are “symptomatic of the hunger to address these issues.” In the second year the project will expand to include a Training the Trainers course as well as providing and online and over the phone anti-racism clinic advice line.

There were several need-to-know pieces of information which came out of the afternoon:

• Discrimination cases are taken to the Workplace Relations Commission. This is all discrimination cases, including cases of refusal of service, not just employment cases.
• Active bystander is protected by equality legislation, meaning a coworker who intervenes in workplace discrimination is protected by law from facing punitive measures from the employer.
• Discrimination cases must be lodged within six months of the incident happening, this time limit does not count for equal pay claims. 

ICTU’s anti-racism toolkit can be accessed here.

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