Influence
There are currently 55 trade unions with membership of Congress, representing about 600,000 members in the Republic of Ireland. Trade union members represent 35.1% of the Republic's workforce. This is a significant decline since the 55.3% recorded in 1980 and the 38.5% reported in 2003. In the Republic, over 60% of union members are in the public sector. Currently, over 1.4m of the Republic's taxpaying workforce are not members of unions.
These figures are questionable as the total workforce in Ireland is between 1.6 and 1.7 million (taking current unemployment levels into account). That workforce also includes some 400,000 self-employed and managers who have no entitlement to join a trade union. So, if Congress has in excess of 600,000 members in the Republic, how can there possibly be 1.4m who are not members. In addition, the majority of trade union members in Ireland are private sector workers (approx 45/55 split), while union density levels ranging from 34-38% compare very favourably with continental Europe, where they average 21-22%. In countries such as France and Spain they fall far lower.
Read more about this topic: Irish Congress Of Trade Unions
Famous quotes containing the word influence:
“A bestial and violent man will go so far as to kill because he is under the influence of drink, exasperated, or driven by rage and alcohol. He is paltry. He does not know the pleasure of killing, the charity of bestowing death like a caress, of linking it with the play of the noble wild beasts: every cat, every tiger, embraces its prey and licks it even while it destroys it.”
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)
“Perhaps I stand now on the eve of a new life, shall watch the sun rise and disappear behind a black cloud extending out into a grey sky cover. I shall not be deceived by its glory. If it is to be so, there is work and the influence that work brings, but not happiness. Am I strong enough to face that?”
—Beatrice Potter Webb (1858–1943)
“Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern—can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)