"THE problems we face in the community are entirely different from the ones in the workplace," Mr Billy Robinson of the Irish Congress of Trade Union's `Counteract' unit told participants at last week's workshop.
"Trade unions operate in a very controlled and relatively safe atmosphere in the workplace, where they are used to discussing ideas, to negotiation and to compromise.
"In the community, however, conflict emanates from feelings, and trade unionists are not trained to deal with feelings."
There have been hundreds of wars and conflicts since 1945 and it is amazing that no one had thought of bringing together trade unionists from different communities riven by war to talk about the experience.
Last week, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the International Labour Organisation took a dozen trade union activists from Northern Ireland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Mozambique and Palestine to the peace and quiet of the Dublin mountains to do just that.
It was not a high profile event indeed, there was no publicity planned at all, and the delegates from Bosnia decided they did not want to be interviewed when this reporter dropped by. It was very much an exploratory exercise. The need for interpretation slowed the debate.
The director of the ILO's London office, Mr Peter Brannen, who helped organise the event, said. "Trade unions are a form of social cement. They can be passive or they can be active, but they don't tend to attract a lot of publicity for what they are doing.
"In each of these countries, unions have played a critical role in bringing about peace and, after peace, in building democracy and pluralistic societies."
He praised the role of the ICTU policies to promote cross community initiatives, as well as countering sectarianism in the workplace.
The priorities of trade unionists living in war zones, he said, was to secure peace, ensure conflicts did not resume, rebuild economies, create jobs and "rebuild communities in areas where people have been killing each other".
He added. "Anyone trying to address conflict in the community first has to see where they are coming from themselves. One has to confront one's own prejudice first. If you don't, it's almost impossible to address someone else's. You have to be aware of your own identity first, before you can walk in someone else's shoes."
While language was a problem at the workshop, everyone was able to identify with the Counteract video Inside Stories, which dramatised the problems faced by a young Catholic woman in a predominantly Protestant workforce, and a middle aged Protestant man in a predominantly Catholic workplace.
Mr Rasem Al Bayari of the General Federation of Trade Unions, Palestine, said his organisation was still in the process of building relations with its Israeli opposite number, the Histradut. Both had had positive negotiations at national level but it was harder to bring along the rank and file.
Ms Ann Sansao Imana of the Mozambican Workers Organisation said. "Yes, there are some places which were under the control of the resistance forces. We all have to work together now. There is a problem because people always used to see each other as enemies. We have to work hard to promote the idea that all are brothers."
At a national level there are moves to attract back miners from South Africa to rebuild the industry in Mozambique.
"We believe the unions must defend the rights of all workers. But we have to be involved in rebuilding society and the economy before we can work for the good of workers," she concluded.