Susan O'Keeffe:

ASTI leaders on the picket line. Pic: RollingNews.ie

Trade unions – the very name sounds archaic. What in the name of all that is

career-driven in the 21 st century – is a trade? When did you last hear someone

talk about taking up a trade? Then remember the Karl Marx notion that

workers had nothing to lose “but their chains” if they came together to fight

their employers – well that’s hardly of the zeitgeist is it?

Ah but not ...