The 2017 Cork Mother Jones Lectures.

 

Tuesday 1^st August 2017 at 7.30 pm.

Ethel Buckley leads the SIPTU Division’s collective bargaining, industrial organising, campaigning, membership growth and activist engagement strategies in the private sector. A member of the Executive Council of the ICTU, she was the inaugural Trade Union Organiser in Residence at Ruskin College, Oxford, England. A Cork woman, she recently led the Clerys Campaign and was involved in the campaign for improvement of conditions of the Irish Womens’ Soccer team.

In the age of austerity, with the growth of the so called “gig economy” the widespread use of zero hours contracts, outsourcing and the general removal of protections from workers, trade unions membership as a percentage of the workforce especially in the private sector is decreasing. However a new generation of trade union activists and officials are challenging employers and the government to ensure workers’ rights are protected, workplace regulations are enforced and the role of trade unions remains relevant in Irish society.

Ethel Buckley will speak to the topic:

“Revitalising the Labour Movement: What can we learn from the Justice for Clerys Workers’ Campaign Victory”

Ed Byrne is current President of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland. He took office on the 1^st August 2016. Ed is a geography and business studies teacher at Colaiste Choilm in Swords, Co Dublin. He wishes to end discrimination against recently qualified teachers and wants equal pay for equal work.

He believes it is completely unacceptable to treat young highly qualified and committed young people entering the teaching profession in this discriminatory fashion. The ASTI which has a membership of 18000 teachers, has been to the forefront of this campaign for some time.

Ed Byrne will address the topic:

“Challenging Injustice, Inequality and the Unethical!”.

James Goltz is a member of the US Labour Union, the United Association.

James is from Bunker Hill, Illinois and has visited the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival twice.

He will deliver what he terms “the essence of Mother Jones” from her grave in Mount Olive Union Cemetery in Illinois to the people of Cork.

James has been in contact with a number of American Labour organisations and will present the Cork Mother Jones Committee with three Proclamations from

• American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organizations, AFL-CIO International President Richard Trumpka (former President of the UMWA) on behalf of its 12.5 million members.
• The Illinois AFL-CIO Executive Board and President Michel T. Carrigan on behalf of their one million members.
• The United Mine Workers of America, UMWA International President Cecil E. Roberts on “behalf of a grateful miners’ nation, its friends and allies”. The United Mine Workers of America was founded in 1890 and Mother Jones worked as an UMWA organiser in the coal fields of America in the 1890s.

These three proclamations will be retained and secured by the Cork Mother Jones Committee and one day they will form part of a permanent exhibition to Honour Mother Jones in her native city.

All are welcome to attend at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon, Cork on Tuesday 1^st August at 7.30 pm.