TRADE unionist Jim Quinn has been fighting for better rights for local workers for nearly 50 years and his passion to make a difference saw him go head to head with the British Government.
After what he describes as an ‘unsuccessful’ education, the Cornagrade man took on employment at ‘Peeters Picture Frames’ in Enniskillen in 1974. That was his first experience of trade unions.
“We felt it was time to get a pay rise. Our requests fell on deaf ears and Leo [Monaghan], a friend and workmate, said he knew a trade unionist Jim Brown and we went to talk to him,” Mr Quinn told the ‘Herald.
In the early 1980s, while Fermanagh was reeling from the Troubles and economic recession, ‘Peeters Picture Frames’ closed its doors, leaving Mr Quinn and its large workforce unemployed.
The Enniskillen man said it was ‘pretty hard’ to get permanent work in the county. In 1987, Mr Quinn was offered a two-year Labour Studies Diploma at Ruskin College in Oxford.
On his return after working for a year with a local community group, Mr Quinn was appointed as the Development Officer for Counter-Act.. He remained there until 1993 when he was appointed as an Officer with the Transport and General Workers Union.
Tasked with covering Fermanagh, Tyrone and Donegal, the Enniskillen man understood the difficulty of the assignment he faced at the time.
“There was a lot of sectarian killings and we had to try and keep sectarianism and intimidation out of the workplace. We had to thread a middle road which was difficult,” recalled Mr Quinn.
“The trade union movement is very broad with people from all backgrounds. We had the Hunger Strikes, the Anglo-Irish Agreement protests and they all put on pressure in the workplace.”
During the 1980s and 1990s, many Fermanagh residents worked in factories and industries including ‘Unipork’ and ‘Kent Plastics’ in Enniskillen and at ‘Coats Viyella’ in Lisnaskea.
While the businesses were making the difficult decisions to close their doors due to economic pressures, Mr Quinn was to the fore in trying to secure a suitable package for workers or save the jobs, at least in the short term.
“It was a very pressurised period because people were looking for different things. Young people were looking to keep their jobs, while older people wanted their redundancy,” he explained.
“Unipork was a huge loss. At one stage, I can remember over 500 people working there on reasonably good wages and it had a major impact throughout the county.
“The Union had a constant battle trying to keep the factory open. Every new owner said if they could cut the wages, they could keep it open. They did cut the wages and the factory still closed.”
From 1969 to 1974, the Fermanagh Civil Rights movement were holding many protests and marches in Enniskillen and throughout the county, in their campaign for equality and a better life.
Mr Quinn makes the point that the ‘Better Life for All’ campaign of the trade union movement which predated the civil rights movement called for ‘One Man, One Vote’.
“We called for citizens’ rights at that time and if we had been listened to, there might not have been any violence,” said Mr Quinn.
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