Siptu’s head of public sector, John King, is set to be elected as the organisation’s next general secretary when the union holds it biennial delegate conference in Galway.
Mr King, a career official with the union, was elected as one of three deputy general secretaries in 2017 and has been a key figure in the negotiation of recent public-sector pay agreements.
He also serves as secretary of the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu), a group that also includes other major unions including Fórsa, the teachers’ unions and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
He is a long-time member of the Labour Party and previously worked in a number of roles within Siptu representing members in the public and the private sectors.
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He is now set to succeed Joe Cunningham who is due to step down as general secretary in February.
A competition for the post had been expected but Mr King’s was the only nomination received and so, barring a surprise rejection by delegates when a vote is taken on the second day of the conference, November 11th, he will take over as the union’s leading figure next year.
With almost 200,000 members, Siptu is the largest trade union in the country and represents workers in almost every sector of the economy.
Like almost all other trade unions, however, it has been hit by a steady decline in the proportion of private-sector employees who have union membership.
The increased size of the country’s public sector has helped to offset the wider decline in density, or membership, which is now put at about 35 per cent overall and below 20 per cent in the private sector.
Siptu’s membership declined by about 5,000 last year, having previously been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The union is seen as facing big challenges on several fronts, but its numbers are said to have been improved this year.
