The National Executive Council of SIPTU, meeting in Liberty Hall, Dublin 1, today (Thursday, 16th July), ratified the election of Adrian Kane as the Union’s new Deputy General Secretary for the Public Service.
The outcome followed a postal ballot of SIPTU delegates, which recorded a turnout of 96%.
In his new role, Adrian Kane will have senior responsibility for SIPTU’s public sector divisions and will play a leading role in national negotiations concerning public service pay and employment conditions.
He will also work with SIPTU representatives and members to address staffing shortages, outsourcing, service delivery, employment security and the protection of high-quality public services.
Adrian Kane will join General Secretary John King and Deputy General Secretaries Ethel Buckley and Greg Ennis as part of SIPTU’s General Officer team.
Adrian Kane has almost four decades of experience as a trade union activist and organiser, representing workers across the public, private, health, community and semi-state sectors.
He led SIPTU’s Public Administration and Community Division between 2017 and 2023 and was a member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Public Services Committee during that period. He led the Division during the Building Momentum national pay negotiations in 2021 and initiated the Valuing Care, Valuing Community campaign, which helped community-sector workers secure pay increases in 2022 and 2023.
His other experience includes leading the Union’s response to the Tara Mines lockout, organising workers in the domestic waste sector and campaigning for the establishment of a dedicated transport police service. He currently serves as SIPTU’s Services Divisional Organiser.
Adrian Kane said: “It will be an honour to serve on the Officer Board of SIPTU. The world of work has been transformed in this digitalised age, but technological change need not be a one-way street, workers’ best opportunity to shape their workplace and share in the benefits of new technology is by unionising.”