Jack O'Connor (born 24 January 1957) is an Irish

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 ...

who has served as

Chairman of the Labour Party The Chair of the Labour Party is a position in the Labour Party of the United Kingdom. The Chair is responsible for administration of the party and overseeing general election campaigns, and is typically held concurrently with another position. ...

since April 2017. He previously served as General President of SIPTU from 2003 to 2017 and President of ICTU from 2009 to 2011.

Background

Born in northern

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

, O'Connor worked in various fields before taking full-time employment with the

Federated 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 ...

in 1980. In 1990, the union became part of

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 ...

, and O'Connor was appointed as its regional organiser for the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

.Business person of the month: Jack O'Connor
", ''Business and Finance'', May 2010

Trade Unionism

In 2000, O'Connor became Vice President of SIPTU, and in 2003 he was elected as General President.Jack O'Connor
, SIPTU O'Connor stepped down as General President on 14 December 2017 after completing three terms in the role. He was appointed to the executive 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 ...

in 2001, becoming Vice President in 2007 and President in 2009. He is also active in the Labour Party and has served on its executive.

Labour Party activities

At the 2017 Labour Party annual Conference, O'Connor was elected as Party Chairperson, succeeding fellow SIPTU official Lorainne Mulligan. O'Connor was elected unopposed. On 4 April 2018, O'Connor was selected as the party's general election candidate for

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

, however he stepped down as the candidate in September 2019, upon which Paul O'Brien was selected to run instead.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnor, Jack 1957 births Living people People from County Dublin Irish trade unionists Presidents of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions