Edmund Browne (born 1937) is an Irish former

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...

. Browne became active in the

Irish Transport and General Workers' Union The Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU), was a trade union representing workers, initially mainly labourers, in Ireland. History The union was founded by James Larkin in January 1909 as a general union. Initially drawing its memb ...

(ITGWU), and was elected as Vice President in 1983, defeating

Des Geraghty Desmond Geraghty (born 27 October 1943) is a former Irish politician and trade union leader. He was president of SIPTU from 1999 to 2004. He stood unsuccessfully at the 1984 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency as a Workers ...

by a margin which surprised his supporters. In 1990, the ITGWU merged with the

Workers' Union of Ireland The Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI), later the Federated Workers' Union of Ireland, was an Irish trade union formed in 1924. In 1990, it merged with the Irish Transport and General Workers Union to form the Services, Industrial, Professional and ...

to form

SIPTU SIPTU (; ''Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union''; ga, An Ceardchumann Seirbhísí, Tionsclaíoch, Gairmiúil agus Teicniúil) is Ireland's largest trade union, with around 200,000 members. Most of these members are in the Rep ...

(Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union), and Browne was elected as joint General President alongside

Bill Attley William A. Attley (born 5 April 1938) is a former Irish trade unionist and football referee. Born in Rathcoole, Dublin, Attley studied at the National College of Industrial Relations. He became active in the Workers' Union of Ireland (WUI), b ...

. Attley later became General Secretary, and Browne held the post alone until his retirement in 1998. Browne served as Treasurer of the

Irish Congress of Trade Unions The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (often abbreviated to just Congress or ICTU), formed in 1959 by the merger of the Irish Trades Union Congress (founded in 1894) and the Congress of Irish Unions (founded in 1945), is a national trade union centr ...

(ICTU) from 1989 to 1995, and from 1997 to 1999 as ICTU President."ICTU Constitution and Standing Orders", p.37

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Edmund 1937 births Living people Presidents of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions