Socialist elected as President of the North's largest union

Monday June 02, 2003 19:31

by Brian Cahill - Socialist Party

Socialist Party member Carmel Gates has been elected President of NIPSA, Northern Ireland's largest trade union.

The election took place at the recent union conference and Carmel won a
resounding victory, polling almost 17,000 votes against 11,500 for
the right wing candidate. Her vote is one of the largest ever
achieved by a candidate for this post.
Another Socialist Party member, Padraig Mulholland, came within a few
hundred votes of winning the Vice Presidency, standing against a
former President and the strongest candidate the right wing could put
up.
The Conference marked a significant shift to the left. The decision
by the outgoing left executive to donate £40,000 to the fire
fighters, who have been involved in months of sporadic strike action,
was endorsed, with only one lone voice raised against the donation
from the floor. A motion backing airport security workers who were
sacked a year ago for striking against poverty wages was also passed
and a donation to their hardship fund was promised.
The right wing were also defeated on a motion trying to reverse a
decision by the outgoing left executive to cut the amount of travel
expenses paid for various union executive meetings. The point was
made that the same people who wanted to increase the amount of money
paid to themselves in expenses had voted against paying strike pay to
social workers that are currently taking industrial action across the
North.
Socialist solution to Middle East
In the debate on international issues, a motion on the Middle East,
which called for a socialist federation of the region, was passed
unanimously. This from a union that purports to he non-political!
A very successful Socialist Party fringe meeting was held with Jim
Barbour, Executive member of the fire-fighters union, the FBU, Gordon
McNeill, sacked airport shop steward, and Peter Hadden of the
Socialist Party speaking.
Unfortunately elections to the General Council (Executive) held in
January this year had given the right wing a majority. A key task
now is to use the position of Carmel as President and the five other
Socialist Party members on the General Council to rebuild the left in
the union so that it can win a majority in next year's election.