Eoin Ronayne takes up new role
by Bernard Harbor
 
The former Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) general secretary has served 28 years as a senior full-time union official the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), CPSU and Fórsa.
The former Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) general secretary has served 28 years as a senior full-time union official the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), CPSU and Fórsa.

Eoin Ronayne has stepped down from his position as Fórsa deputy general secretary to take up a new role working on targeted organisational projects for the union while providing support to general secretary Kevin Callinan in his role as ICTU president.

 

The former Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) general secretary has served 28 years as a senior full-time union official the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), CPSU and Fórsa. He played a huge role in the 2018 Fórsa amalgamation and successful bedding down of the new union.

 

This was after the CPSU’s 2015 conference adopted his report, which recommended talks on the creation of a single public service trade union and a massive 76% vote in favour of setting up Fórsa in 2017.

 

Following the amalgamation, he led the new union’s organisation and development initiatives as one of three joint general secretaries.

 

Eoin joined the CPSU as financial secretary in 2002 and became deputy general secretary five years later. He served as the industrial official for social protection the Revenue Commissioners while handling the union’s communications brief. He was also the CPSU’s lead union representative at the Civil Service General Council.

 

Appointed general secretary in May 2012, Eoin led the union out of the ‘Croke Park II’ public service negotiations in the spring of 2013, and into a ‘No Alliance’ with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

 

When Croke Park II failed to win backing across the public service unions, he led the union in the talks on what became the Haddington Road Agreement. While rebuilding relations with other public service unions, he mounted a CPSU campaign to prioritise lower paid workers as the economy began to recover from the austerity crisis.

 

Building better links with IMPACT, in particular, he secured CPSU support for the Lansdowne Road Agreement, which delivered on the longstanding CPSU goal of flat-rate increases for lower paid workers.

 

From the beginning, he highlighted the demand for the roll-back of the additional working time introduced under the Haddington Road Agreement.

A former RTÉ News journalist and radio producer, Eoin was appointed Irish secretary of the NUJ in 1994.  As an activist, he led a four-day RTÉ strike in 1984, which was the last major stoppage in the state broadcaster.

 

During his time in the NUJ, he also worked to achieve ground-breaking freedom of information legislation and fought an 11-weeks court battle in an attempt to prevent the closure of the Irish Press.

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