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Head of main ESB union faced no-confidence motion after pay talks - one that was never acted upon

More than 50% of electrical union TEEU’s ESB technician members expressed no confidence in Paddy Kavanagh in March 2017.

shutterstock_402537220 Shutterstock Shutterstock

THE HEAD OF the country’s main electrical union faced a no-confidence motion in the wake of crucial pay talks last year – but the motion was never considered or acted upon.

Connect, formerly TEEU (Technical Electrical and Engineering Union), repeatedly balloted its members to approve a pay agreement that had been put on the table by the company in January of 2017.

In the wake of this and the acceptance of that pay deal by the workers, several of the union’s chapters tabled a petition regarding a motion of no confidence in Paddy Kavanagh, the union’s general secretary since 2016.

That petition list and expression of no confidence was endorsed by one of TEEU’s branches, and was signed by more than 400 of the company’s 800 network technicians (NTs) who were with TEEU at the time, a greater than 50% ballot.

The generic text of the motion read:

This letter is an expression of our “Vote of No Confidence” in the TEEU General Secretary Brother Paddy Kavanagh due to his failure to represent the requests of his members. We understand the severity of this decision and did not arrive at it hastily.

2 Connect general secretary Paddy Kavanagh LinkedIn LinkedIn

Not on the agenda

However the no confidence motion was never considered by the union’s EMC (Executive Management Committee) due to a technicality, as it wasn’t placed on the agenda for the meeting of the company that it was presented at.

“You’re talking more than half of the technicians in the union, the main electrical union in the country, expressing dissatisfaction with how that organisation is being run,” a union source said.

“That’s significant whatever way you look at it. It’s representative of the feelings of the workers at the company.”

Connect/TEEU was contacted by TheJournal.ie with regard to the motion of no confidence – no reply had been received at the time of publication.

In the wake of the no confidence motion being tabled, an exodus of ESB workers began from the TEEU. Much of the dissatisfaction stemmed from the way in which the negotiations with the ESB regarding the January 2017 pay deal had been handled, something they believed would lead to a two-tier pay structure at the company, a red-line issue with many union members.

File Pics Staff at the ESB have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action in a row over a 1.6 billion deficit in the company pension scheme. Gareth Chaney / Rollingnews.ie Gareth Chaney / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

More than 550 employees left the union, having tendered their resignations en masse, from March 2017.

Expelled

250 of those members subsequently joined Connect’s sister union Siptu, only to be expelled from the organisation in July of this year on foot of an objection from the former.

Transferring between the two unions is prohibited by a deal known as the TUF (Trade Union Federation) agreement. The workers argued their actions as a case of resigning their membership, as opposed to an attempted transfer, hence not in breach of the agreement.

It has since emerged that the 200 ESB technicians that were with Siptu prior to the influx of former TEEU members are intent on leaving the union themselves in solidarity with the other workers.

However, that move is not expected to happen before a crucial vote on work practices within the company, due to take place in the next month, in order to leave all members entitled to a vote.

“Of the 1,500 craft and technician workers with the ESB at present, half of them are in no union,” a source said.

That is a serious number. That’s the big story. Five years ago it would have been unheard of.

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25 Comments
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    Mute Gary Dorrian
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:09 PM

    Corruption in unions is rife threw them all. Its not hard to believe people are leaving and also leaving labour out in the cold for it.

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    Mute John Considine
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    Sep 1st 2018, 11:15 PM

    @Gary Dorrian: In a general sense, to accept monies for the provision of a service under contract (ie a Trade Union) and to willfully violate that contract would appear, at face value, to constitute the criminal offence of Fraud.

    No doubt the investigation will begin any day now…..

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    Mute Gary Dorrian
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 12:13 AM

    @John Considine: What?

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:35 PM

    The insidious use of two-tier work terms is rightly opposed by the electricians. The dirty shennanigans of the unions is designed to force on workers the demands of the employers. The workers are right to fight back. Unions are snakes in the grass.

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    Mute stephen darling
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    Sep 1st 2018, 11:08 PM

    @PV Nevin: It’s only the tip of the iceberg.

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 1:17 AM

    @stephen darling: Yes, worldwide.

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    Mute Dot Com
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:15 PM

    We pay too much for power here no competition.

    65
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    Mute JesusMoreBullshit
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:20 PM

    @Dot Com: SSE Airtricity , Panda Power , Electric Ireland , Board Gaia Energy , Energia , Just Energy , Benergy , Floras ,Prepaypower ,Pinergy

    Yep another brain box throwing out random bull comments without facts . As per above their is plenty of energy suppliers.

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    Mute niall
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:20 PM

    @Dot Com: there is “competition” , that’s exactly the problem. When it was just ESB we had one of the cheapest electricity rates in Europe. Since the Regulator got a brain fart and started letting every other Tom, Dick and Harry sell electricity, the prices have gone up. Esb were forced to lose over half of its customer base for this to happen. It’s absolutely scandalous what goes on.

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    Mute Dot Com
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:41 PM

    @JesusMoreBullshit: You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.

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    Mute JesusMoreBullshit
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    Sep 1st 2018, 10:42 PM

    @Dot Com: Worst come back ever well done

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    Mute Thomas Kearns
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    Sep 1st 2018, 11:00 PM

    @Dot Com:
    We had some of the lowest price power in Europe before competition came into the market and the ESB were directed to rise their prices so so the other companies would come into the market

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    Mute Super Ted
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    Sep 1st 2018, 11:07 PM

    @JesusMoreBullshit: Yes but have a look at their prices, they are all closely aligned with minor adjustments to pricing if you switch but you ultimately you end up paying the same long term or more if you opt for pre-pay.

    If I was conspiratorial, I would say that they are colluding with each each other to keep prices inflated (look at energy costs in other EU countries) but we probably use more electricity in Ireland than our EU neighbours :D

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    Mute Dot Com
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    Sep 1st 2018, 11:38 PM

    Mr Bullshit, You’re describing a cartel, not competition.

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    Mute Ian James Burgess
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    Sep 1st 2018, 11:36 PM

    The plasterers union was a complete joke accepting brown envelopes from builders in the 70′s, they didn’t give a Fig about their members.

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    Mute Galleries & Museums in Ireland
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 1:28 AM

    Union amalgamation in cases such as Forsa and others, create impressively large powerbases, but deny workers the freedom to ‘shop around’ for the most suitable union. In our sector, we’ve seen unions get a little too cosy with management and government, to the detriment of workers. Partnership deals also appear to undermine the very fabric of trade unionism. Behemothic super unions did not bode well in the recent past either.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Labour_Organization

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 2:31 AM

    @Galleries & Museums in Ireland: Workers do not need to ‘shop around’. They need to act in the interests of heir own class; and no union will let them do that.

    We have long been in an era (since the 1970s perhaps) of unions subjecting the working class to deals that are in the interests of the employer. There are no gains to be got from the ruling class. Unions switched sides and have gone with the flow.

    Working people need to break completely from unions and set up their own rank-and-file organisation They can then begin to take on the employers, free from the rotten unions.

    23
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    Mute Galleries & Museums in Ireland
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 3:04 AM

    @PV Nevin: Due to a recent ‘dubious’ deal by our own union that imposed unnecessary hardship on all but an inner sanctum of high earners, we will be relinquishing our memberships soon. We are wary however of leaving a vacuum and are considering options such as the following..
    https://digitallabor.org/schedule/alternate-forms-of-labor-organizations

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 11:27 AM

    @Galleries & Museums in Ireland:
    I’m afraid these are not at all what is required.
    The Freelancers Union looks like a very limited organisation of ‘advocacy’ for the self-employed.
    The Makeshift Society similarly a pressure group that includes business owners. Black Googler and Gaygler are identity politics grups that actually split workers. (The fight for democratic rights is a universal, class struggle).

    The employers have deliberately fostered the splintering of their workforces to split them, and make them believe that other sections of the workforce are the cause of their difficulties. This dirty method of the ruling class is also obviously applied to society as a whole.

    The drive for austerity is relentless and ruthless; and workers who are in unions and have dealings with them know just how ruthless the unions are in putting workers down.
    We must break completely from the unions, regard them, plainly, as our sworn enemy; but then set up our own rank’and-file workplace, college and community committees.
    This is a battle against the ruling class. This is about class, about uniting all sections of the working class.

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    Mute Galleries & Museums in Ireland
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 11:47 AM

    @PV Nevin: Thanks for looking into that. We won’t be doing anything too rash until we’ve done substantial research into viable alternatives. Paying a subscription to a trade union that puts it’s members (customers) in harms way while pandering to the whims of a clique of high earning ‘colleagues’ is counter productive to say the least.

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 12:10 PM

    @Galleries & Museums in Ireland: The unions always try to split the workforce into competing groups. That is how they and the bosses control the workforce. Workers must reject all splitting and come together in a united fight. To do that they must set up their own rank-and-file committees. Their is no other way.

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    Mute Galleries & Museums in Ireland
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 1:23 PM

    @PV Nevin: We can’t disagree with that.

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    Mute PV Nevin
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 1:11 AM

    The time is coming soon when working people are going to capsize the unions/employers con trick by setting up rank-and-file committees. The days of the unions are rightly numbered. Here, and around the world:
    Teamsters head to UPS workers: Don’t complain, creating new tiers is “what we’ve always done”
    http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/01/tayl-s01.html

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    Mute Dave Walsh
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 7:39 AM

    Again easy one here,start your own collective bargaining with your employers,join together to fight for better working conditions.Elect leaders you trust to negotiate for YOUR interest.

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    Mute Gerard Heery
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    Sep 2nd 2018, 3:00 AM

    The truth is coming to surface on all the government policies the ducking and driving and conniving is coming head to rloost

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    Mute Cormac Mc Greal
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    Oct 10th 2018, 10:04 AM

    Red rotten to the core!

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