Anthony McIntyre  lauds the acumen and commitment of a trade union colleague who died in September.
Gerry Corbett

There was no destination other than a stop well short of the assumed natural terminus for the life journey of Gerry Corbett. His ticket allowed him to go no further than the one at which he had to depart. He knew it and was resigned to it, even quipping to me about a legal threat from the ESB, that they could stuff it, I’ll be pushing up daisies by the time it comes to court.

Earlier in the year I rang him for some advice. He gave it to me and then casually mentioned that he might have lung cancer, for which he would be undergoing tests in addition to those he had already taken and which revealed shadows on his lungs. A heavy smoker, he was not optimistic. When the diagnosis came through he took to the bourbon or brandy for three evenings while contemplating his fate before reverting back to his base line position. The tests had revealed that his fears were right, and worse. The cancer had spread. He guessed he had about three months left to live. In the end he didn’t get much more.

About five years ago I walked into the office of the Dublin Branch of the Independent Workers Union. The union was organizing a workshop and Gerry was delivering a seminar on aspects of labour law and trade union representation. Anything but long winded, he was as concise as he was incisive. He  knew his stuff so well that he easily met the criteria for being an expert. 

Over the next few years I came to draw on his expertise. During one twelve hour mediation with a company on behalf of an employee, I took the opportunity afforded by a tea break to ring him and ask for advice. He advised me to hold out at a point where I was about to agree a settlement. He explained that there was more to be got.

A few hours later I rang him again. This time his advice was to settle. I was on the verge of walking out before he changed my mind. Two crucial interventions by him leading to me hitting reverse gear, taught me the value of experience in trade union negotiations. He calculated the odds, knew when to pitch and when to pull.

Anytime I was praised for having done a good job on that occasion, I invariably referred to the role of Gerry Corbett.

On another occasion that saw him in Dublin to chair the Standing Orders committee at the union’s AGM, I had got him a place to stay, gratis and close to the office. The union had at one time given the  house owner a pull-out and they were pleased to reciprocate.  Before he headed off to leave his bags in the gaff, I sat with him and Noel Murphy in the IWU office chewing the fat. Both of them were like an old married couple, joined at the hip for so long that there was nothing new under the sun for either, about the other. For me it was different: there was just so much to learn as they discussed Labour issues, trade union history, case law, the WRC, the Labour Court and all manner of trade unions - all of it interspersed with funny vignettes.

The downside of it was that I realised very quickly just how much ground I had yet to cover to come within even a country mile of both. And when union members shafted by their employers depend on you to salvage something for them, you don’t want to drop the ball. It was a learning exercise on a steep curve.

Two decades earlier both had been part of:

a small group of genuine trade unionists who after huge difficulty and opposition from both the state and the elite trade union crew managed to form and create a new trade union In Ireland based on the principles of Connolly and Larkin.

That was the Independent Workers' Union, which Gerry was still a member of at the time of his death. He functioned as an active trade unionist and union official for over a quarter of a century. He felt his former union SIPTU were Labour puppets at the expense of their membership, so was happy to make the break and help set up the IWU. 

An immovable force in the way of Fine Gael and Labour plans to impose water charges, he complained that "the continued waste of Garda resources in relation to the support of Irish Water is nothing short of criminal,” and asked of the Garda Representative Association:

The question now is
Just who are you protecting
And what master are you serving?

Often, unions are places of griping and grumping. My wife, a one-time trade union official with experience in Los Angeles and New York, reminded me that ten per cent of a union membership will take up ninety percent of the official’s time – but only if they are allowed. Gerry had no time for either that or vacuous waffle. Not one of those at whom the jibe could be directed that when all is said and done, more will be said than done, he was decisive when the time came for strike action: no baulking, no blowing smoke.

In one Labour dispute, ESB workers were being rode over roughshod by management in what looked like privatisation by stealth. I initially had been handling the cases but something more than representation was needed. That is when Gerry came in with the strategic brain. He had a unique way of sizing up a situation and then moving to secure the advantage. It was time to down tools. 

The confidence that ESB workers had in his ability was uplifting to observe. They were invigorated by him. Standing on picket lines over a two week period with them, while other unions sought to shaft and undermine them, I could see at close quarters their belief in Gerry. It was not misplaced. A hard act to follow, his death was a serious blow to the hopes of the ESB workers. Never again will they have the same quality of leadership. 

Gerry was clearly of the radical school which led me to pose the question of why he welcomed the rise of Sinn Fein, an opportunist party whose bottom line was once described by our mutual colleague Tommy McKearney as making sure it would never be caught in possession of anything as principled as a bottom line. He was frank, predicting that Sinn Fein would do absolutely nothing for the poor, the homeless, the working class, but by having them oust the sitting incumbents it would create the type of instability within the establishment consensus which the Left could benefit from. Think of all the promises Sinn Fein will break - well, I knew that from the long litany of abandoned undertakings and summersaults in the North - that could lead to the emergence of an authentic Left alternative. My view was that it would merely lead back to Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and maybe even Labour. His optimism was greater than mine, his scepticism less. 

As left as his worldview was, Gerry was too long in the tooth to be a trendy lefty. He was a practical Leftist with an awareness of what was achievable and what could prove detrimental if the achievable was not grasped while the window through which it could be reached was still open. Despite his willingness to bring the workforce out, he favoured brain over brawn. A director of GT HR Consultants and the recipient of a degree in Human Resource Management, he applied with good effect his cerebral talents against the HR departments of so many companies who had lost sight of the human and only saw the resource.

He was by no means overtly religious but he did believe in some form of spirituality – he would comment as his life was approaching its end that he knew I believed in none of it. But I was not going to start telling him that I felt it was all nonsense at a time when he would perhaps draw sustenance from it. Fine to be blunt in these matters but not to be cruel. Whatever gets people through the night.

Gerry Corbett is a name that can be mentioned alongside union stalwarts like the late Bob Crow, and people would not blink twice or find it out of place. Trade unionism had long seeped through to his bones. Even at the end when the cancer that killed him sought to colonise the same bones, it never displaced the original occupant. Gerry Corbett may have died from cancer but he died with trade unionism. For his colleagues and employees, he fought to the end.

 ⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Gerry Corbett


Anthony McIntyre  lauds the acumen and commitment of a trade union colleague who died in September.
Gerry Corbett

There was no destination other than a stop well short of the assumed natural terminus for the life journey of Gerry Corbett. His ticket allowed him to go no further than the one at which he had to depart. He knew it and was resigned to it, even quipping to me about a legal threat from the ESB, that they could stuff it, I’ll be pushing up daisies by the time it comes to court.

Earlier in the year I rang him for some advice. He gave it to me and then casually mentioned that he might have lung cancer, for which he would be undergoing tests in addition to those he had already taken and which revealed shadows on his lungs. A heavy smoker, he was not optimistic. When the diagnosis came through he took to the bourbon or brandy for three evenings while contemplating his fate before reverting back to his base line position. The tests had revealed that his fears were right, and worse. The cancer had spread. He guessed he had about three months left to live. In the end he didn’t get much more.

About five years ago I walked into the office of the Dublin Branch of the Independent Workers Union. The union was organizing a workshop and Gerry was delivering a seminar on aspects of labour law and trade union representation. Anything but long winded, he was as concise as he was incisive. He  knew his stuff so well that he easily met the criteria for being an expert. 

Over the next few years I came to draw on his expertise. During one twelve hour mediation with a company on behalf of an employee, I took the opportunity afforded by a tea break to ring him and ask for advice. He advised me to hold out at a point where I was about to agree a settlement. He explained that there was more to be got.

A few hours later I rang him again. This time his advice was to settle. I was on the verge of walking out before he changed my mind. Two crucial interventions by him leading to me hitting reverse gear, taught me the value of experience in trade union negotiations. He calculated the odds, knew when to pitch and when to pull.

Anytime I was praised for having done a good job on that occasion, I invariably referred to the role of Gerry Corbett.

On another occasion that saw him in Dublin to chair the Standing Orders committee at the union’s AGM, I had got him a place to stay, gratis and close to the office. The union had at one time given the  house owner a pull-out and they were pleased to reciprocate.  Before he headed off to leave his bags in the gaff, I sat with him and Noel Murphy in the IWU office chewing the fat. Both of them were like an old married couple, joined at the hip for so long that there was nothing new under the sun for either, about the other. For me it was different: there was just so much to learn as they discussed Labour issues, trade union history, case law, the WRC, the Labour Court and all manner of trade unions - all of it interspersed with funny vignettes.

The downside of it was that I realised very quickly just how much ground I had yet to cover to come within even a country mile of both. And when union members shafted by their employers depend on you to salvage something for them, you don’t want to drop the ball. It was a learning exercise on a steep curve.

Two decades earlier both had been part of:

a small group of genuine trade unionists who after huge difficulty and opposition from both the state and the elite trade union crew managed to form and create a new trade union In Ireland based on the principles of Connolly and Larkin.

That was the Independent Workers' Union, which Gerry was still a member of at the time of his death. He functioned as an active trade unionist and union official for over a quarter of a century. He felt his former union SIPTU were Labour puppets at the expense of their membership, so was happy to make the break and help set up the IWU. 

An immovable force in the way of Fine Gael and Labour plans to impose water charges, he complained that "the continued waste of Garda resources in relation to the support of Irish Water is nothing short of criminal,” and asked of the Garda Representative Association:

The question now is
Just who are you protecting
And what master are you serving?

Often, unions are places of griping and grumping. My wife, a one-time trade union official with experience in Los Angeles and New York, reminded me that ten per cent of a union membership will take up ninety percent of the official’s time – but only if they are allowed. Gerry had no time for either that or vacuous waffle. Not one of those at whom the jibe could be directed that when all is said and done, more will be said than done, he was decisive when the time came for strike action: no baulking, no blowing smoke.

In one Labour dispute, ESB workers were being rode over roughshod by management in what looked like privatisation by stealth. I initially had been handling the cases but something more than representation was needed. That is when Gerry came in with the strategic brain. He had a unique way of sizing up a situation and then moving to secure the advantage. It was time to down tools. 

The confidence that ESB workers had in his ability was uplifting to observe. They were invigorated by him. Standing on picket lines over a two week period with them, while other unions sought to shaft and undermine them, I could see at close quarters their belief in Gerry. It was not misplaced. A hard act to follow, his death was a serious blow to the hopes of the ESB workers. Never again will they have the same quality of leadership. 

Gerry was clearly of the radical school which led me to pose the question of why he welcomed the rise of Sinn Fein, an opportunist party whose bottom line was once described by our mutual colleague Tommy McKearney as making sure it would never be caught in possession of anything as principled as a bottom line. He was frank, predicting that Sinn Fein would do absolutely nothing for the poor, the homeless, the working class, but by having them oust the sitting incumbents it would create the type of instability within the establishment consensus which the Left could benefit from. Think of all the promises Sinn Fein will break - well, I knew that from the long litany of abandoned undertakings and summersaults in the North - that could lead to the emergence of an authentic Left alternative. My view was that it would merely lead back to Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and maybe even Labour. His optimism was greater than mine, his scepticism less. 

As left as his worldview was, Gerry was too long in the tooth to be a trendy lefty. He was a practical Leftist with an awareness of what was achievable and what could prove detrimental if the achievable was not grasped while the window through which it could be reached was still open. Despite his willingness to bring the workforce out, he favoured brain over brawn. A director of GT HR Consultants and the recipient of a degree in Human Resource Management, he applied with good effect his cerebral talents against the HR departments of so many companies who had lost sight of the human and only saw the resource.

He was by no means overtly religious but he did believe in some form of spirituality – he would comment as his life was approaching its end that he knew I believed in none of it. But I was not going to start telling him that I felt it was all nonsense at a time when he would perhaps draw sustenance from it. Fine to be blunt in these matters but not to be cruel. Whatever gets people through the night.

Gerry Corbett is a name that can be mentioned alongside union stalwarts like the late Bob Crow, and people would not blink twice or find it out of place. Trade unionism had long seeped through to his bones. Even at the end when the cancer that killed him sought to colonise the same bones, it never displaced the original occupant. Gerry Corbett may have died from cancer but he died with trade unionism. For his colleagues and employees, he fought to the end.

 ⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

3 comments:

  1. Brilliant tribute. Gerry was always available to me for advice in the workplace and I agreed with his analysis on multiple fronts. A great guy and terrible loss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Paddy - myself and others will find it tough going to plug the gap caused by his death. There was rarely a problem he could not find a solution to. And when he couldn't he would simply say move on to the next issue.

      Delete
  2. Clearly a major prop for you in the work that you carry out representing hard done by workers. Not much I can say for I did not know the man. However, I agree with your point on Sinn Fein. Perhaps we are incurable cynics whenever it comes to our former comrades.

    Alex

    ReplyDelete