Paddy Cardiff, who has died aged 79, was a former general secretary of the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland (FWUI) and president of the Irish Council of Trade Unions (ICTU).
From a staunchly Larkinite background, he had a lifelong commitment to social justice. He was a straight talker and a tough negotiator. He was slow to resort to strike action, but once he did he saw it through to the end as in the case of the Aer Lingus dispute in 1978.
A "constitutional socialist" who had no time for communism, he nevertheless had no difficulty with the appointment of officials of opposing political views. "If staff had the ability, I wouldn't discriminate," he once said.
He was born on November 8th, 1925, one of the six children of Patrick and Catherine Cardiff (née Maguire) of Basin Street, Dublin. Both his parents were active trade unionists, his father in the Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI) and his mother in the Irish Women Workers' Union.
He attended James's Street CBS but quit school at 13 and worked at various jobs before joining the British army in 1944. He saw service in India and enjoyed army life, learning much about leadership and discipline that was to be of use in later life.
He also enjoyed the debates and discussions with his comrades. "We were determined that things would never be the same again, after the war. I wasn't at all surprised when the Labour government swept to power in Britain in 1945."
On his return to Dublin in 1948 he worked as a builder's labourer before getting a job in Guinness's brewery. Almost immediately he became involved in recruiting workers into the WUI.
There was strong resistance from management and, indeed, employees, but Paddy Cardiff and his colleagues persisted, and in 1952 the WUI was recognised by the company.
Cardiff became a shop steward in 1955, rising in quick succession to chief shop steward, branch officer and executive member of the union. He attended the Catholic Workers' College, which was run by the Jesuits and was viewed with suspicion by many trade unionists. As far as Cardiff was concerned, he took from it what he wanted and disregarded anything that was in conflict with his politics.
In 1964 he became a full-time official of the WUI. One of the first disputes in which he was involved led to an increase in the basic wage in the industry. A strike by bakery workers won them the 40-hour week.
The six-week maintenance workers' dispute of 1969 was seen by Cardiff as "savage", a strike won by craftsmen on the back of general workers. It was, in his view, divisive and undisciplined and underlined the need to put collective bargaining on a new and more organised footing.
On assuming responsibility for education in the WUI, he introduced training for shop stewards with a view to strengthening their role. It was due to his efforts that the position of shop steward was given formal recognition in the WUI rule book.
In 1969, following the death of James Larkin jnr, he was elected deputy general secretary of the union.
In the lead up to the 1972 referendum on Irish entry to the European Economic Community (EEC), he forcefully argued that the economic and social benefits of membership far outweighed the disadvantages. He further argued that the Irish people were, culturally and ideologically, Europeans. Almost alone among trade unions, the WUI campaigned for entry.
In 1977 Paddy Cardiff succeeded Denis Larkin as general secretary of the WUI. Two years later the union merged with the Federation of Rural Workers to form the FWUI, the second-largest union in the Republic with 50,000 members.
Cardiff had long argued that wage bargaining alone did not advance the interests of workers and by the late 1970s he was expressing dissatisfaction with national wage agreements.
He supported the national understandings of 1979 and 1980. They had created a forum in which the voice of the trade union movement was listened to, and he considered it essential that participation and consultation at national level should continue.
He was bitterly disappointed therefore when the employers refused to enter a third national understanding, and angry that the Fine Gael-Labour government did nothing to rescue the situation.
In 1983 he retired on medical grounds as general secretary of the FWUI. In his presidential address to the ICTU annual conference that year, he referred to the many challenges facing the trade union movement and made an impassioned call for rationalisation as a matter of urgency.
Paddy Cardiff is survived by his wife Breda (née Kearns).
Paddy Cardiff: born November 8th, 1925; died June 3rd, 2005