Tribute to Eamonn O’Kane, General Secretary of the NASUWT who campaigned for a merger between the three TUC teachers’ unions.

The teacher trade union leader Eamonn O’Kane was ahead of his time. As the general secretary of the National Union of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) he was a strong advocate of merging the three TUC-affiliated teacher trade unions, thus giving education a more powerful voice with ministers.

He saw what almost everyone outside teacher trade unionism could see – that having three voices speaking in different tongues made it hard to get the profession’s message across to the general public. It also enabled ministers and local education authorities to exploit differences between the three.

O’Kane actually ran on a ticket of promoting merger between the three and, despite the tribal loyalties of some on his executive, he succeeded in becoming the union’s general secretary in 2002. As one of his first acts on taking office he put a paper to his union’s annual conference on how it would come about. It was too far forward too soon and he received a rebuff – but it had if at least put the issue to the forefront of the agenda in a way that had not happened before.

Eamonn O’Kane was born in Northern Ireland and educated at St Malachy’s College, Belfast , and at Queen’s University, where he studied economics and history. He then taught at secondary and grammar schools in Belfast for 20 years and was an active trade unionist, working for the anti-sectarian NASUWT (the only TUC affiliated union at that time to have both Protestants and Catholics in membership). Many observers believe that it was working in that environment that made him realise the importance of unity in difficult circumstances.

Sadly his death only two years into a five-year period of office as general-secretary has meant he has failed to bring this unity about. If he did not live to see his campaign for teacher unity to fruition, O’Kane did conjure up a number of notable successes during his years as a trade-union activist, and the first of these when he was the Northern Ireland representative on the NASUWT Executive Committee. During that time, he helped build up regional membership to the point where the NASUWT was the largest teachers’ union in Northern Ireland – no mean feat for a union which straddled the sectarian divide at a time of enormous tensions in the province.

It would be no exaggeration to say that, of the classroom-teacher trade-union leaders, O’Kane was the one who commanded the greatest respect. He found it easy to work with colleagues across the trade-union divide – particularly in the campaign to expose excessive workload and the impact of staffing shortages on schools. O’Kane would not shy away from industrial action as an effective weapon to secure a better deal for teachers. Equally he would not rush to the barricades unless he was convinced there would be some benefit to his members accruing from it.

He leaves a wife, Daphne, two daughters and three grandchildren. The best tribute that could be paid to him would be if his dream of teacher unity were to become a reality in the not too distant future. Many in trade union circles are convinced it will.

Extracts from the Obituary written by Richard Garner, of the ‘Independent’ 26th May 2004 .