There is pride in a union

This weekend marks the 5th anniversary of the successful Marriage Equality referendum. The Yes equality campaign was a remarkable success and it is right that we celebrate, albeit apart, the great coming together of so many progressive groups and organisations in Ireland under the rainbow banner.

Pictured at the public launch of Trade Unionists for Civil Marriage Equality from left, Rachel Mathews-McKay, SIPTU LGBTQ Network, Niall Callan, INTO LGBT, Anne Marie Lillis, INTO LGBT, Catriona Finn, Young Workers Network, and Deirdre Dunne, SIPTU.

Success they say, has many parents, failure is an orphan. The truth is the victory belongs to every one who cast a vote for fairness and equality and can be shared by every one who played their part in shaping a better Ireland.

Rachel Mathews-Mckay, SIPTU LGBTQ Network and Public Administration and Community Shop Steward, speaking at SIPTU Manufacturing Division Conference in October 2014.

The trade union movement has every right to be proud. The role of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) and later SIPTU in the decades of struggle for LGBT+ rights which preceded the achievement of marriage equality is only recently getting the recognition it deserves.

Workers and Students Join Forces to Say Yes To Equality

As Cathal Kerrigan, a founder of the Cork Gay Collective, has pointed out the generosity of the ITGWU in making Connolly Hall, available for the first National Gay Conference in 1981 was a seminal step in the evolution of the gay rights movement.

The collective itself was powered by trade unionists and left wing activists who in time were to become leading figures in securing trade union support for decriminalisation of homosexuality, for employment equality legislation, for civil partnership and ultimately for marriage equality.

Pioneering figures like Kieran Rose and the late Chris Robson worked through the trade union movement at a time when it took courage to speak out in public.

All who spoke out are deserving of acknowledgment.

SIPTU’s Local Authority Sector Committee endorsing a Yes vote in the Civil Marriage Equality Referendum. The Local Authority was one of the first sectors to endorse a YES vote

It is worth noting that the Congress Education and Training committee held a significant seminar in November 1985, an event which records suggest did not exactly have the wholehearted support of the then General Secretary Donal Nevin. The work of Assistant General Secretary Patricia O’Donovan in the field of equality should never be forgotten.

Congress published a ground breaking document in June 1987, Lesbian and Gay Rights in the Workplace, Guidelines for Negotiators. The significance of this development cannot be overstated: decriminalisation did not occur until 1993. It was an important milestone for our movement.

The work of SIPTU and Trade Unionists for Civil Marriage Equality is consistent with that tradition of solidarity.

Every member who asked for a vote, who staffed phone banks or canvassed friends and neighbours played their part in writing a new chapter in the ongoing struggle for equality.

It’s a chapter worth celebrating.

This article was written by Seamus Dooley, Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalists. Seamus was co-convener of the Trade Unionists for Civil Marriage Equality with Ethel Buckley, SIPTU and David Joyce ICTU.

The ICTU is planning an online celebration as part of Pride 2020, details to be announced.