A Letter from Ireland
a Chara,
I am still on the road and leaving Las Vegas for the Irish Unity People’s Assembly for the Diaspora in San Francisco and Vancouver.
Vegas is a strange, disorienting place, and not one I had ever planned to visit. But here I was attending the Transport Workers Union of America conference at the invitation of their President, John Samuelsen.
I was fresh off the plane, having attended the Irish Echo Irish-American Labor Awards in New York, and had the opportunity to meet with Sean O’Brien, President of the Teamsters Union.
Sharing time with both leaders was truly inspiring and refreshing. There was a shared passion for doing the right thing for workers and their families, a healthy disregard for “bosses”, and a contagious passion for change. Both are supporters of Irish Unity.
Over the two days in Vegas, I listened as union organizers, from leadership to the shop floor, spoke of the daily battles for respect and safety on the job—the need for a living wage and benefits. The TWU calls itself the “Fightback Union”, and when they fight, they win.
It would be a foolish boss who gets in the way of these workers. They are informed, energised, strategic, and active. Their demands were reasonable: the reshoring of airplane maintenance to ensure safety standards, opposition to driverless vehicles, or as one speaker asked, “Can an algorithm do CPR on a passenger!?”
They were seeking proper pay for a day’s work and benefits such as maternity and paternity pay. Transport workers keep the economy running. During Covid, they were deemed essential workers, and once the crisis was over, they became disposable.
Again and again at the conference, speakers and videos invoked Mike Quill, one of the founders of the Union. Mike was an IRA volunteer in the War of Independence. He fought against the British in his native County Kerry, and he opposed the treaty and partition of Ireland. After the Civil War, effectively blacklisted, he immigrated to America.
As a follower of the executed 1916 rebel leader and trade unionist James Connolly, he witnessed the appalling conditions in the New York subway and set about creating a union for the workers. He even named it after Connolly’s Transport and General Workers Union. Connolly had also been a labor organiser in the US.
Today, under the leadership of John Samuelsen, the TWU embodies the fighting spirit of Quill and Connolly.
Connolly famously said, “The cause of labour is the cause of Ireland and the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour.” That remains true to this day. The building of a new and united Ireland is the opportunity to build a prosperous home for workers.
The same could be said of the labour movement in the US. At a time of division and inequality, the labour movement stands for unity and opportunity. Almost six hundred delegates, representing one hundred and sixty thousand workers, spoke as one, determined to stand up for their rights and their future. What I found in Las Vegas was not fear and loathing, but hope and respect with labor leaders and their members in lockstep, and ready for the fight ahead.
Is mise,
Have a great weekend,
Ciarán
Ciarán Quinn is the Sinn Féin Representative to North America
