A packed meeting was held last night in the Mick Lally (formerly the Druids)
Theatre in Galway to launch the One Galway Initiative.  The One Galway
Initiative is an ICTU supported coalition involving all of the Trade Unions,
Student Unions and other civil society groups operating in the Galway area,
it follows the very successful initiative launched in Cork about 2 years
ago.  IFUT members are core to both groups with Alastair McKinstry active on
the One Galway Project and Michael Delargy and others flying the IFUT flag
in Cork.   

The Public meeting was focused on the aim of the Trade Union movement to
build a collaborative community campaign to fight exploitation and improve
workers' conditions.  The meeting heard from workers in all sectors
including Higher Education, the Service Industry and the Voluntary Sector.
Every Attendee present left the meeting knowing that the challenges facing
workers don't recognise the employment sector the worker is engaged in .
The meeting discussed the effects that precarious work has on workers,
families and the community.  There will be follow up meetings in the coming
months.

The meeting was attended by a range of interested and interesting people
from students to seasoned trade union members with some attending their
first trade union meeting.  Frank Jones, Deputy General Secretary, IFUT
reminded the meeting that our responsibility was in the first instance to
organise the workplaces and secondly, and equally as important, for the
trade unions to collaborate and work together in our Trades Councils and
through initiatives such as One Galway and One Cork to ensure that we
deliver and that we are seen to be relevant to those workers of tomorrow,
inter-union squabbles do nothing positive for the movement.