Fórsa has called on its members to attend the Rally for Unity and Hope in Dublin on Saturday, 23rd November. The event, organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), will take place at the Larkin Statue on O’Connell Street, with the aim of countering division and hate within Irish society in the run up to the election. 
 
“I am asking those in the trade union movement to ensure we have a strong presence of activists from unions across our movement at this rally, to show that all unions stand together in solidarity. Together, let us demonstrate that compassion and unity are stronger than division and hatred. Join us as we rally for a future of inclusion, strength, and unwavering unity," said Owen Reidy, ICTU general secretary ahead of the rally. 
 
Kevin Callinan, general secretary of Fórsa, emphasised the union’s commitment to inclusivity. "Our union has always fought for equality in public services and across society. Every day our members work for the good of all people in our country, whether they’re on the front line of community health services, working in schools, offices, libraries, cleaning our cities, and everywhere else our union is active.” 
 
Fórsa members in libraries have faced harassment, threats, and even forced closures due to protests, with incidents like book burnings and personal attacks on staff. Earlier this week, research published from UCD’s School of Information & Communication Studies revealed widespread fears for safety, particularly in rural libraries, where staff are sometimes alone.  
 
“Why now people are asking – well the demonstration is taking place a year to the day from the riots which left Dublin covered in broken glass and scarred with flames.  It was our members in the Municipal Employees’ Division who had to clean that up and it’s our people in the libraries that are so often viciously targeted by these attention seeking hate peddlers.  This is no longer just internet ugliness and trolls, it’s affecting our workplaces - so let’s show these members we have their back,” implored Kevin.  
 
Callinan further stressed Fórsa’s rejection of any divisive influences in workplaces or communities. "Fórsa members have been increasingly affected by groups seeking to sow division and hate in our workplaces and communities. We know that there are people who want to blame the challenges in our society on people who are different, when instead better public services and improved pay and conditions at work would make our country a fairer place for everyone.” 
 
Members planning to attend are invited to gather at the union’s headquarters at Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1, from 12:15 pm, where refreshments will be available. The group will depart at 12:45 pm to walk together to the main rally location. While registration is not required, members are encouraged to RSVP to assist with planning. Fórsa also urges members to help amplify the rally’s message by sharing details on social media.  
 
“Let’s make sure we show that Fórsa members stand united for public services: provided by all, to the benefit of all,” Callinan added. 

You don’t have to register to join us, but it would be helpful to have an idea of numbers so if you’re planning to come you can let us know here.

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Fórsa is conducting a survey to gain a more comprehensive understanding of LGBTQI+ members' experiences, both in and out of the workplace, and members still have time to take part.

This survey aims to provide objective statistical analysis to help inform our upcoming Fórsa Equality seminar, taking place on Wednesday 27th November 2024. The survey also sets out to inform policy and procedures when raising such matters with respective employers.

The trade union movement has long been a shining light of support for LGBTQI+ people and has been instrumental in battling discrimination and fighting for equality for the LGBTQI+ community. 

In 1982 LGPSU activist Kieran Rose brought a motion to an ICTU conference supporting the decriminalisation of homosexual acts on the basis of equality, and calling for equality legislation. This was the first motion if its kind, thus sparking hard fought trade union campaigns, spanning decades, which further improved the rights of LGBTQI+ people. 

Over 40 years later, at Fórsa’s biennial Conference in May 2024, delegates voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion proposed by the Galway Health and Local Government branch, instructing the incoming National Executive Committee to establish a LGBTQI+ network to support all members and staff who identify as a member of the LGBTQI+ community. 

Fórsa will formally mark the establishment of the Fórsa LGBTQI+ network, and launch “Trade Unions and Progress, a personal history” by Kieran Rose at the union’s Equality Seminar. Places are limited and branches will be facilitated on a first come first serve basis. Early registration is encouraged.

Members interested in attending should speak to their branch and register their attendance here. 

If you require any further information, please contact Róisín McKane at rmckane@forsa.ie. 

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Hot Press Books has announced the publication of Power To The People (The Hot Press Years) by Michael D. Higgins. The book is a collection of the powerful columns the future President wrote for Hot Press between 1983 and 1993, covering a huge range of the big issues of the time, including US foreign policy in South and Central America.

The author's royalties for the book – which is dedicated to the late Sally O’Neill Sanchez – will go to the Irish aid agency Trócaire, with whom Sally worked. 

The President said the discipline of writing that fortnightly piece for Hot Press required him to stand back and reflect deeply on the history and context of what he was doing, and why: "I put my heart and soul into the writing, developing and refining what I hoped to be a sense of immediate, human urgency. 

“The full interaction of my work as a concerned politician and activist was informed by what I was writing.  I am so glad to have had that opportunity – and it moves me greatly to have that work brought together now for everyone to see and read – and hopefully to enjoy," he said.

Hot Press editor Niall Stokes added: “Michael D's column was wide-ranging and free of conventional media constraints. It could be devastatingly critical on the one hand, and open-minded, warm and inspiring on the other.

“But it always reflected the deeply-felt commitment to human rights and to the equality agenda that would ultimately see Ireland modernise in the most impressive way socially and culturally. That makes it an essential document of modern Ireland in-the-making,” he said.

The hardback edition, signed by the author, is available only in a special limited edition, on pre-sale now.

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This general election Fórsa is calling on parties and candidates to support our vision of a society that works for workers.

Friday 29th November, polling day in the general election, is an opportunity for public sector workers to demand a society that delivers a decent quality of life for all workers, offers accessible, high quality public services, and which provides a secure future in the face of climate change and advancing technology with regards to AI.

All of these demands are outlined in our general election manifesto which presents policy proposals to strengthen public services and enhance the working lives of our members. You can read it on our election hub here. 

Earlier this year, more than 20,000 of you shared your priorities with us, highlighting the issues you want us to campaign on in the lead up to the election and during the lifetime of the next government.

These priorities are:

• Meaningful pay increases, that go beyond inflation, that reward workers for their commitment to public service.
• The protection of remote and hybrid working arrangements, and a commitment to piloting the four-day week in the public sector, without loss of pay.
• Investment in high quality public services, including community healthcare, publicly funded childcare, and availability of reliable public transport. 

These issues affect all of us, and if addressed, would not only improve the lives of our members, but also strengthen public services and deliver widespread benefits for workers, service-users, and society. 

Members can send a strong message to all political parties by taking part in our email campaign. It takes just ten seconds to tell them what you want. Click here. 

You can print this poster and use the question on it when election candidates knock on your door, so that you'll know if they support our priorities. 

Download it here. 

Strong local government and services are essential to a thriving, prosperous society. But over recent decades, the privatisation of former local government services, increased executive power, and the erosion of financial autonomy and decision-making power, has significantly weakened our local government. To effectively deliver essential services such as waste collection and management, water, and housing, our local governments must be supported and adequately resourced. 

We’re advocating for an end to the outsourcing of work that can, and should, be delivered locally by directly employed public sector workers. This would ensure better quality, value for money, and decent working conditions for workers. We are calling for the remunicipalisation of essential services because it is good for workers, good for residents, and good for the environment. 
We are seeking commitment to: 

• Provide adequate investment and independent funding powers for local authorities.
• Support initiatives for directly elected mayors in each local authority.
• Remunicipalisation of waste collection services.
• Hold a referendum to ensure that Ireland’s water services remain in public ownership.
• Increase the delivery of cost-rental housing.
• Hold a referendum on the right to housing. 

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Branches across Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services Division will soon receive flyers, explaining the changes to the renegotiated Blended Working policy for workers in the sector.

The union-agreed revised policy gives all council staff the right to apply for remote or blended work arrangements, and formally embeds the blended working policy across the sector. 

Head of Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services and Municipal Employees’ Divisions Richy Carrothers explained that the updated policy represents a significant improvement, offering greater protections for members and incorporating a comprehensive appeals process. 

“The revised policy emphasises a fair, transparent, and swifter process with more opportunities for feedback and engagement. It now includes a robust appeals process and greater protections for members, ensuring decisions are justified and reviews are conducted impartially. While the framework is robust, Fórsa is continuing to work to ensure a fair and transparent approach to worker requests for blended work is applied across the sector, and this revised policy will help to deliver that,” he said. 

Richy encouraged members to familiarise themselves with renegotiated and enhanced policy changes, to help ensure that a fair approach is applied to requests for blended work.

“We know that blended working is good for workers, employers and service users. Fórsa members have continued to demonstrate that this new way of blended working works, by championing and demonstrating a culture of flexibility, agility, trust and innovation. It’s vital that members know their rights and this flyer outlines, at a glance, the policy improvements,” he said.

The revised policy can be viewed in full here and the explainer document can be found here.

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Fórsa members working at libraries across the country have reported feeling deeply impacted after being targeted by far-right agitators objecting to the presence of LGBTQ+ reading material, according to new research conducted by UCD’s School of Information & Communication Studies. 

Commissioned by LGBT Ireland and Fórsa, the report entitled Resisting Hate and Navigating Agitation: Perspective and Voices of Public Library Staff & Librarians Against Reactionary Responses to LGBTQ+ Materials, acknowledges the resilience and bravery of library workers, who since 2022, have been subjected to a coordinated campaign of abuse and harassment by agitators entering libraries and attempting to remove books they deem to be “inappropriate”.

Based on qualitative interviews with library workers this year, the research found that library staff experienced a “pervasive undercurrent of anxiety and unease” in their workplaces relating to agitation and disruption, which has been amplified by social media posts, media reporting, and accounts of incidents in other libraries, shared amongst colleagues and library networks. 

Workers also reported feelings of anger, frustration, stress, and trauma, caused either by direct experiences of being aggressively challenged by agitators in the library, or by the fear that it might happen to them in future.

One library worker interviewed said: “It's such a confrontational situation, and like there is somebody looking you straight in the face and calling you a child abuser. It's just really difficult to deal with in a way that I didn't appreciate was going to be, until I was in that situation. I would count myself as somebody who's quite resilient and quite able to deal with confrontation, but it was hard.”

Staff working in rural libraries especially reported fearing being physically attacked while they were the only staff member present while the demonstrations were taking place. To protect themselves in such situations, some rural libraries developed “buddy systems” with nearby libraries.

UCD researcher Dr Páraic Kerrigan, described how library workers established a network to alert other libraries that there is an agitator present, and someone from the buddy library will come to either relieve that staff member or to join them and help them so they are not alone. Páraic said "Access to diverse information is the foundation of a thriving democracy. Libraries stand as pillars of inclusion and knowledge, and any agitation and disruption of public libraries and their workers in providing LGBTQ+ materials is not merely an attack on these resources but an assault on democratic values themselves. Protecting the freedom to access information for all communities is essential to sustaining an open, informed, and inclusive society”

Speaking at the launch, Head of Fórsa’s Local Government and Local Services and Municipal Employees’ Division Richy Carrothers welcomed the report and said it helped members “feel heard”. 

“One of the most important elements of this report is that it amplifies the lived experiences of workers. Fórsa members say they feel heard. It's an evidence-based analysis of what is being done to them by anti-LGBTQ+ agitators," he said. 

Richy, who chaired the project steering committee that put Fórsa members at the heart of this research, went on to explain that libraries are community hubs for social integration, serving as centres of cultural, educational, and academic learning, and must be places free from harassment and intimidation for both staff and library users. 

“Library workers need to be protected from this harassment, our members are afraid for their safety in their workplace. We proudly represent hardworking library staff across Ireland who do integral work, including creating inclusive communities. We support our members and they feel supported by their union. An attack on a library worker is an attack on the vital public services they provided. We demand safety in libraries for workers and the people who use them. It is clear from the evidence that Fórsa remained the only consistent voice advocating for workers. Workers also stuck together and supported each other. That shows the power in the union,” he said.

The full report Resisting Hate and Navigating Agitation: Perspective and Voices of Public Library Staff & Librarians Against Reactionary Responses to LGBTQ+ Materials, can be accessed here.

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This winter the Fórsa Skills Academy have some fantastic training opportunities for members.

‘Lunch and Learn’ will return on the last Friday of the month as usual. The next session will look at the ins and outs of the BDS campaign and how members can best take part. Meanwhile applications have opened for Level 2 Workplace Representatives’ Training taking place in Cork in January. A crucial course for workplace reps who want to make a positive impact on their workplace.

Lunch & Learn - Using the International Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign as a tool of solidarity – Online - 29th November 

Live Lunch and Learn is Fórsa’s monthly offering to members, covering a wide variety of topics of interest to members.

This month’s topic will be using the International Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign as a tool of solidarity. 

The contributors will explain the aims and reasoning behind the BDS movement, as well as informing and educating members on the role they can play as part of Fórsa’s policy concerning BDS and the struggle for peace and justice in the region.

BDS is a movement that relies on the support and engagement of individual people. Members will be glad to hear this session will lay out how they can best take part. There will also be an opportunity for members to hear what actions they can take themselves to campaign for the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill.

This session will take place on Friday 298th November, from 1pm-2pm. Registration is open and available here.

To learn more about BDS visit here.

Level 2 Workplace Representatives’ Training - Cork - 8th and 9th January

Applications for Level 2 Workplace Representatives’ Training opened this week. This training is key for workplace reps looking to be effective in their role. The course teaches skills and knowledge crucial to workplace organising, such as mapping the workplace, individual representation for members, equality & diversity, health and safety, and more.

The course is in three parts over four days. All parts must be completed in order to progress on to further training. 

To be eligible for this training applicants must 

• Be a workplace representative.
• Have completed Level 1 Workplace Representatives’ Training
• Confirmed their application with their branch chairperson and Fórsa assigned official

For Workplace Representatives’ Training the registration link is sent the Branch Chairpersons, Secretaries and Training Officers. Members interested in this training should contact their Branch Officers directly.

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Fórsa launched its manifesto at its General Election event at the union’s head office yesterday.

The event, which was attended by Fórsa members and political representatives from across the country, focused on improved pay for workers, protection of remote work and the introduction of a four-day week, and the provision and availability of high-quality, world-class public services.

While not aligned to any political party Fórsa’s election manifesto reflects the concerns of Fórsa members and the policies they wish to see implemented by the next Government.

Speaking at the launch, Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said successful trials of a four-day week in the private sector provided a compelling opportunity to have a conversation with Government about agreeing areas where it would be possible to trial a four day week in the public sector.

Fórsa’s director of campaigns Grace Williams explained that the response to the union’s commissioned survey by Amárach had informed the development of the manifesto, with an ‘overwhelming’ 20,000 responses providing rich data on the views of Fórsa’s membership.

Presenting the manifesto to the event, Fórsa’s policy officer Aisling Cusack described the three core issues as the “bread and butter” of the union agenda: “We know there's been decades of under investment in services. The ground that we need to make up now needs to happen, really, at scale and at pace. 

“We're looking for a real pay rise, one that goes beyond matching inflation and which rewards our workers for their commitment to delivering public services so they can enjoy a decent quality of life."

“We're also looking for the parties to make a real, strong commitment that they will engage with us on a successor to the current public service pay agreement,” she said.

Aisling also outlined the continuing difficulties arising from chronic underinvestment in local government, and the union’s determination to see waste collection services brought back into direct delivery by local authorities. 

Welcoming a forthcoming trial of municipalised waste collection by Dublin City Council (DCC), Aisling said the union will continue to work closely with DCC on the issue. She said the union would also continue to campaign for a referendum on the public ownership of water and the right to housing, items that had not been fulfilled despite being in the outgoing Government’s programme.

Yesterday’s event included a presentation by research company, Amárach, who conducted the survey of Fórsa members and informs the union manifesto. The event also featured a presentation of ongoing research by independent think-tank, TASC, on the future policy challenges for Irish governments.

You can read the full manifesto here.

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