Trade unionists have a right to be proud of their achievements, but these were not grounds for complacency, the president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Ms Inez McCormack, has told delegates to the opening session of its biennial conference.
Forty-two per cent of workers were in unions, but this was a deceptive reality because nothing like that level of organisation was appearing in the private sector, among women workers, young unemployed people, ethnic minorities and the low-paid.
"How do we ensure that we are sufficiently relevant to their interests and that our membership reflects the modern working population and not just a section - and an increasingly privileged section - of it?" Ms McCormack asked.
"My words and the words spoken here will not do it. It is the relevance of our behaviour to effect changes in their working lives that is the test of our sincerity and our ability to do so.
"We need to reassess our recruitment and organisational practices. Our openness, our capacity to reform ourselves, are crucial factors in determining if we are going to be able to challenge and shape globalisation on behalf of an inclusive and cohesive movement rather than reflecting an uneasy amalgam of narrow sectional interests."
The "new rhetoric for change might be reluctantly accommodated" by unions, but it was harder to change behaviour in a way that allowed those excluded a voice at the negotiating table. "I may be the first woman president of the ICTU, but in this first year of the new millennium, of the 26 general seats on the executive council, 25 will be held by men.
"Our culture is still that of `adding on equality' to an unadulterated way of doing our business. We then debate at every conference why women, young people, those with disabilities, ethnic minorities, the low-paid, the part-time worker are on the margins of our movement.
"I am suggesting that we need to rediscover a practice of solidarity that is about being helpful and honest with each other, to passionately disagree while retaining respect." The option was to allow "spite and ego" to divide the movement.
"If we are simply to be a well organised sectional group, let us say so," Ms McCormack added. "If we are not prepared to make fairness central to our practice, then let us drop the rhetoric."