Patricia McKeown elected new ICTU president

(11/07/07) UNISON official Patricia McKeown is the new president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the all-Ireland body representing some 817,000 trade unionists.

The UNISON Northern Ireland regional secretary was elected at the ICTU's biennial conference, when Congress met to set its policy and a programme of work for the coming two years.

This is not the first time a UNISON woman has become president of a national federation.

NEC member Alison Shepherd is currently president of the TUC and Katrina Purcell has just stood down as president of the Scottish TUC.

Ms McKeown hopes to use her presidency to campaign on a number of international issues in alliance with other women who have become presidents of their national federations.

Welcoming her to the role, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern wished her well as she started her term of office.

In a guest speech to the conference he said that the Irish government appreciated the "substantial ongoing work by Congress on policy papers... around public services, pensions, employment standards, productivity and other key issues.

"The quality of those contributions is very high and, when endorsed by Congress, I can assure you they have a real influence on national debates."

Mr Ahern also spoke of the need for public service reform and modernisation, pointing out that Congress itself has led on this issue and that there was "no reason to doubt the future of the public service at the heart of a stronger Ireland".

Concluding, Mr Ahern said that a strong and vibrant trade union movement was central to a strong and vibrant society.

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