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Conference aims for better work, better lives


Irish Congress of Trade Unions General Secretary, Patricia King, told the ICTU Women’s Conference this summer that equality for women has not been achieved. In pointing to issues that women face in the


workplace, Ms King cited the growing gender pay gap, structural and systematic impediments that have resulted in a preponderance of women in low-paid work, CSO figures that show women perform the majority of homecare duties, and deficient family leave provisions. She said sexual harassment also leads to ill health and people forced to resign, calling it a health and safety issue. Ms King also said that women are underrepresented at senior levels in the trade union movement. The biennial conference, held in June in Enniskillen, drew 160 delegates, including NUJ members Bernie Mullen, cathaoirleach (job share), IEC; and IEC members Kathryn Johnston and Carolyn Farrar. Therese Caherty attended as chair of the Trade Union Campaign to Repeal the 8th, to take part in a fringe event on the 32- county trade union survey on Abortion as a Workplace Issue. Under the theme, Better Work, Better Lives for


Women Workers, conference debated and passed motions on a range of issues, including


Remembering Martin September 28th marks the anniversary of the


murder of Sunday World journalist and NUJ activist Martin O’Hagan. To mark the anniversary the NUJ will be writing to the British Prime Minister and An Taoiseach, again seeking the reopening of the murder investigation under an independent, international expert. Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley said recent police raids were designed “to silence those who, like Martin, sought to shine a light into the


Two of the NUJ delegates at the ICTU Women’s Conference, Carolyn Farrar and Bernie Mullen, Cathaoirleach, IEC (job share), which was addressed (below) by Patricia King, ICTU General Secretary.


women and leadership in the trade union movement, the housing crisis, precarious employment, childcare, support for breastfeeding, and workplace policies that support women through menopause. Conference also supported the work at the International Labour Organisation to create a new international labour standard to address sexual harassment.


darkest corners.” “Martin was killed in 2001. The failure to


properly investigate the murder and to secure convictions is a stain on the history of the PSNI. The arrests of NUJ members, the failure to deal with evidence of police collusion and cover-up over the Loughinisland massacres, must be viewed against the backdrop of the inaction on Martin’s death. Like Loughinisland, his murder cannot be described as ‘unsolved’. The identity of is killers is known to the PSNI. Rather, we are faced with a refusal to act on available evidence and we are entitled to ask, ‘Why?’


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