Servants to the Public: A History of the Local Government and Public Services Union, 1901-1990

Servants to the Public: A History of the Local Government and Public Services Union, 1901-1990

The History of the LGPSU is not only the history of the trade union. It is also a history of the public service sector in independent Ireland and its often-difficult relationship with the estate. Born in the war of independence, the local government officials union played a key role in the victory of the revolutionary forces. It was to find however that, in the drive for economy in the state, it had to defend the salaries and conditions of its members but also at times the very concept of public service. As it grew from a narrowly based and exclusively white-collar union to being part of the largest public sector organization in the state, it has played a unique role in developing the state’s response to poverty, unemployment, housing, and public health. The LGPSU was central to the emergence of equal pay as a feminist issue in the early 1960s, an issue which deeply divided the membership. Latterly, it played a central role in fostering the concept of social bargaining and in negotiating the centralized agreements which underpin the prosperity of the 1990s. The history of a public sector trade union reacting to, confronting and absorbing changes in the state will be of interest to historians of independent Ireland, trade union and public sector workers.

Maritn Maguire

Institute of Public Administration

1998

PDF

English

1901-1990

Paper