25 August 2000

UNIONS HAVE VALUABLE ROLE TO PLAY: SEAN FARREN

"Trade unions have been a stabilising influence in Northern Ireland through their efforts to keep sectarianism and political matters off the shop floor," the Minister for Higher and Further education, Training and Employment, Dr Sean Farren, said this morning.

Making the keynote address at the Irish Conference of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) in Newcastle, Co Down, Dr Farren said that the trade union movement also had a vital role to play in developing the local economy.

He said: "We need to ensure that individuals, whatever their circumstances, are ready, willing and able to make a full contribution to the competitiveness and productivity of the modern economy, especially in view of the challenges pressed on us by new technologies and the growth of knowledge-based industries.

"Trade unions, including the AEEU, are, and will be, an important partner in that drive and have a vital part to play in our efforts to create the environment in which that can happen.

"An excellent example of this is the drive towards lifelong learning, in which my Department has been working closely with the trade union movement as a whole to maximise the opportunities available.

"The AEEU itself is very aware of the role of lifelong learning as a means of facilitating and benefiting from change. It has invested time, effort and money on training and education to give its members the skills and knowledge they need to help secure their future and at the same time contribute to Northern Ireland's economic development."

Delegates from all over Ireland attended the two day conference which started yesterday and which is being held in the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle.

 

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