Independent Workers Union

The Independent Workers Union (IWU) is a new small Irish trade union which stands outside the partnership consensus and is attempting to build a radical trade union.At the WSM’s conference in the autumn of 2005 we added to our Trade Union position paper:

“In recent years the Independent Workers Union (IWU) has been formed. It openly declares itself as being anti-social partnership and is actively working to recruit and organise low-paid workers. We welcome this development and will do anything we can to assist them in this work. We encourage all WSM members to become either full or associate members of the Independent Workers Union with a view to working within and alongside the IWU to further the objectives of our Trade Union position paper”

Since then, a number of WSM members have been actively involved in the IWU and in assisting its work. We have done so because we see the work it is doing in recruiting and attempting to organise workers who are currently unorganised as being of crucial importance. Much of the IWU’s work is aimed at recruiting and organising people in ‘precarious employment’. This often consists of taking cases for people to the Labour Court, Employment Appeals Tribunal, Rights Commissioners etc. – work that is far from glamorous but is of huge significance for the individuals affected. The people involved in the union want to recruit workplaces and want to re-build a radical fighting trade union spirit. This can’t be done by a clicking of the fingers but takes a hell of a lot of work.

We would encourage all revolutionaries, radicals, anarchists and libertarians in Ireland to join the IWU and help in the task of building what can become a new radical voice for workers.