Founded January 1909 Merged into SIPTU | Date dissolved 1990 Country Ireland | |
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Native name Ceardchumann Iompair agus Ilsaothair na hÉireann Predecessor National Union of Dock Labourers | ||
The Irish Transport and General Workers Union, an Irish trade union, was founded by James Larkin in January 1909 as a general union. Initially drawing its membership from branches of the Liverpool-based National Union of Dock Labourers, from which Larkin had been expelled, it grew to include workers in a range of industries. The ITGWU logo was the Red Hand of Ulster, which is synonymous with ancient Gaelic Ulster.
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The ITGWU was at the centre of the syndicalist-inspired Dublin Lockout in 1913 and the events left a lasting impression on the ITGWU and hence on the Irish Labour Movement.
After Larkin's departure for the United States in 1914 in the wake of the Lockout, William X. O'Brien became the union's leading figure. He later served as general secretary for many years.
In 1923, Larkin formed a new union, the Workers' Union of Ireland, to which many of the ITGWU's Dublin members affiliated. The ITGWU nevertheless remained the dominant force in Irish trade unionism, especially outside the capital. William O'Brien and James Larkin remained bitter personal enemies, and when Larkin and his supporters were readmitted into the Labour Party in the early 1940s, O'Brien engineered a split in the party, with the new National Labour Party claiming that the main party had been infiltrated by communists. A further split occurred in the Irish Trade Union Congress when that body accepted the WUI's membership in 1945. The ITGWU left the Congress and established the rival Congress of Irish Unions.
From the 1950s on proposals to merge the two unions were floated. Finally, in 1990, the ITGWU merged with the Workers's Union of Ireland to form SIPTU (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union).
The ITGWU should not be confused with the British-based Transport and General Workers Union, which organised in Ireland under the name Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU) and is now Unite the union.
Mergers
The union absorbed numerous smaller trade unions:
1914: Dublin Coal Factors' Association 1915: Kilkenny Brewery Labourers' Trade Union 1917: Irish Glass Bottle Makers' Society, Rathmines and District Workers' Union 1919: Brewery Workers' Association (Cork), Carpet Planners of the City of Dublin, Dublin Saddlers and Harness Makers' Trade Society, Irish Land and Labour Association, Irish National Agricultural and General Workers' Union, Mullingar Trade and Labour Union, Queenstown and District Government Labourers' Union 1920: United Building Labourers and General Workers of Dublin Trade Union 1921: Amalgamated Society of Pork Butchers (Limerick and Waterford) 1922: Meath Labour Union 1923: Irish Automobile Drivers' Society 1925: Irish Mental Hospital Workers' Union 1938: Dublin Coal Factors' Association, Dublin United Tramway and Omnibus Inspectors' Association 1941: Limerick Corporation Employees' Union 1943: Tipperary Workingmen's Protective and Benefit Society 1950: Cumann Teicneori Innealoireachta 1953: Clothing Workers' Union (Derry) 1976: National Union of Gold, Silver and Allied Trades (Irish branches) 1977: Irish Shoe and Leather Workers' Union (Dundalk) 1979: Irish Actors' Equity Association 1981: Irish Racecourse Bookmakers' Assistants' Association 1982: Irish Federation of Musicians and Associated Professionals (later split)