I welcome this motion and support it. It is appropriate that we debate this motion on workers' rights in the lead up to May Day. May Day and May Day demonstrations resulted from the adoption of a resolution for a great international demonstration at the International Workers' Congress in Paris in 1889. That demonstration was in support of workers' rights and the demand for an eight-hour working day, and 1 May was chosen to commemorate a general strike in the United States which had begun on 1 May 1886. In Ireland, May Day was first celebrated in 1890, organised by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions. The key demand from the platform speakers on the day of course was the eight-hour working day. The working class and their trade unions have always been at the forefront of the fight for workers' rights and for national independence and self-determination. We need only remember the 1913 Lockout, the 1916 Easter Rising and the role played by the Irish Citizen Army led by James Connolly. We remember the banner hanging from Liberty Hall, the HQ of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union at the time which said, "We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland". Is it not shameful that, more than 100 years since independence, Irish workers do not have the legal right to collective bargaining through a union? The work in Ireland survey 2026 found that the 44% of workers in Ireland who are not currently in a trade union would like to join. One of the reasons is that many employers, including hugely profitable multinational companies, refuse to negotiate with trade unions and cannot be forced to do so under current legislation. Urgent legislative change is needed to provide for a legal right to collective bargaining by trade unions. These companies put every obstacle in the way of trade unions recruiting members, including refusing access by trade unions to workplaces. Some even resort to harassment of leafleteers handing out union information on public thoroughfares near their companies. Trade union membership and collective bargaining have been shown to increase pay, productivity and employee retention, and benefits to the community generally. The Government decision to row back on commitments to increase statutory sick pay and to delay the introduction of the living wage until 2029 is shameful and should be reversed immediately. The ask now is to introduce legislation to provide for a legal right to collective bargaining by trade unions, to provide legal access to workplaces by trade unions, to increase statutory sick pay, and to introduce the living wage immediately.

Sentiment score: 0.16