Address by DAVID BEGG, General Secretary, Irish Congress of Trade Unions, at Welcome Reception for Workers from 10 new Member States of the EU in Tailors’ Hall, Dublin.

 “We are gathered today in one of the oldest buildings in the oldest part of Dublin. The Tailors’ Hall has historical links with trade unionism in the sense that the Tailors’ Guild was set up here 300 years ago. The building was subsequently used by  many other guilds, the forerunners of trade unions, until they were suppressed in 1841. The Tailors’ Hall was also used as a meeting place by the non sectarian and internationalist United Irishmen.

Its history makes this place an appropriate setting to celebrate the historic event taking place today. As trade unionists, we are, by our creed, internationalist as well so we rejoice for the potential which enlargement holds to enrich the lives of so many working people. The fact that it is happening in Dublin and on May Day – a day so significant for workers – is a particular satisfaction.

In my earlier working life I had the privilege of representing workers in the communication sector. In our union headquarters we had as old photograph of the executive of the International Secretariat for Postal Workers (now part of the UWI) meeting in Vienna in the 1930s. When Hitler came to power he suppressed all trade union activity so the organising work of the people in the photograph was disrupted.

After the war much of  Europe fell under communist control with the result  that the union movement could not restore itself to pre-war conditions for sixty years. Happily, today, we are not just celebrating the political re-unification of Europe but, in a sense, the re-unification of the European trade union movement as well.

European Union has long been a trade union aspiration. When Jean Monnet established his ‘Action Committee for a United States of Europe’ in 1955 it was to the trade union leaders of France and Germany he turned for support. The experience of war  and the desire never to repeat it was  a powerful motivating force behind the union support. The unions have always been integrationist in outlook, as indeed is the European Trade Union Confederation today.

We do not wish to see an enlarged Europe become a shallow common market based on economic considerations only. Europe must become a deeper political entity. Its mission today has moved prevention of war .It must be the repository of the values behind the social market model and as an alternative pole, to the United States, of western influence in the world. The United States has many virtues as a nation but, as Monnet put it in a letter to  French Prime Minister, Rene Pleven, in 1950:

 “Alone (the US) will not develop the political vision of which the world stands in need. I think that is our task.”

The organised workers of Europe have an historic responsibility to articulate what the alternative vision can be and to advocate for it.

But, of course, our work is not just confined to such lofty ideals and objectives. There are immediate and practical challenges to face.    

The Irish government has been the first to allow free movement of workers from today. We support this but with the realisation that migrant workers are vulnerable to exploitation. They need the active protection of their host country which means a well resourced labour inspectorate capable of enforcing the employment protection enshrined in law. Congress is currently discussing this with Government.

More important than this  as a protection against exploitation is union membership.

‘Your European Union Card’ is an initiative of Congress and the European Trade Union Confederation to recruit  and organise migrant workers.  It will be distributed by unions here and in the Accession countries and through the embassies of those countries to all who contact them. It is intended to be a statement:

• A statement  of solidarity
• A welcome
• An invitation to ‘join us’
• A practical information guide in all languages with linkages to websites with back up information
• A Passport to help from trade unions for anyone who wants it.