We gather together here in Galway for our union’s 2023 Biennial Delegate Conference to review and reflect on our work on behalf of members across the island of Ireland in 2021 and 2022.

As importantly, we will, over the next few days, debate and engage on motions that will shape our union’s priorities and objectives for the rest of the decade on behalf of working people of this island.

During the years under review, our society emerged from the ordeal of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the enormous impact it had not alone economically but socially and above all in terms of lives lost. As a union are very conscious of the suffering involved and also acknowledge the enormous contribution that organised Irish workers made across the country in the public, private and community sectors, often at great personal sacrifice. 

Even as we were emerging from the pandemic workers in Ireland and across Europe were faced by new and extraordinarily difficult challenges due to the onset of inflation, fuelled by price gouging on the part of many corporations and further aggravated by the escalating war in Ukraine. The illegal invasion by Russian forces of its’ neighbour disrupted fuel and food supplies across the globe, adding to the extreme financial hardship faced by workers and by the less well off in society.

SIPTU stood shoulder to shoulder with our colleague trade unions in the ICTU in displaying solidarity with the people of Ukraine. We worked closely with the NGO Sector in assisting Ukrainian people who came to Ireland after being forced to flee the conflict, providing them with information on their working rights when they arrived seeking solace and safety. Characteristically, our members also responded in communities across the country, engaging collectively and individually with victims of the war by their demonstrations of practical international solidarity at local level. 

On the domestic front we were able to ensure through our engagement in the High-Level Working Group on Collective Bargaining (LEEF) with the Government and employer bodies, as well as our fellow affiliates in the ICTU, that the Government introduced urgently needed measures to alleviate the effects of the inflation crisis on working people. These measures in areas such as childcare, transport, energy and education, played a critical role in protecting living standards for those in most need.

In the Private Sector, across the island, SIPTU Organisers and Shop Stewards were to the fore in negotiating agreements on pay increases and improvements in conditions of employment such as pensions, sick pay, and bonuses as a means by which the value of our members’ pay was protected.

In the Public Sector our members voted to accept proposals negotiated through the Review of Building Momentum. These provided significant improvements in pay, with additional measures targeted at low to middle income earners to offset the effects of the inflationary crisis.

Our Public Services members in the North of Ireland were supported in taking industrial and strike action as part of the ICTU Northern Ireland Campaign to improve pay and ensure cost of living measures.

In the Community Sector, the union continued to ramp up its campaign for pay justice for our members in Section 39, 56 and 10 funded agencies.

The rights of workers to engage in collective bargaining has long been campaigned for by the union and our members. During the years under Review at the LEEF, SIPTU (as part of the ICTU) achieved significant progress on this fundamental right. The was done alongside the campaign for the EU Adequate Minimum Pay Directive, which was achieved last October and now places obligations on our own state to legislate for Collective Bargaining.

SIPTU knows that these measures can radically advance collective bargaining rights in Ireland. We will campaign vigorously to ensure that their effective implementation provides the maximum benefits for working people.

We will also continue in our campaigns to improve the conditions under which SIPTU members live by supporting the Raise the Roof, Stop 67 and Pensions Promise Campaigns.

Beyond this we will continue to organise childcare workers through the Big Start Campaign in order to win improved pay and conditions for our members, as well as to provide for greater funding to lessen the costs of childcare on families.

Our Workers’ Rights Centre continued to support members where their individual rights were being denied to them and it continues to achieve significant compensation awards for them, as well as effective enforcement of workers’ rights.

Finally, on behalf of the Officers of the union and the NEC, I would like to thank all the delegates to this Conference, all our Shop Stewards and all our Activists for the invaluable work you do on behalf of our members to improve the quality of their lives and contribute so much to wider Irish society.