Trinity College Dublin Student Union (TCDSU) has tonight passed four motions. These included a motion to introduce a crossover document template for school convenors to reduce information inconsistency from one convener election year to the next, and for TCDSU to formally coordinate with and support the INMO in their current nursing strike action.
Sally Anne McCarthy, the Engineering Maths and Science (EMS) Faculty Convener, proposed the motion on a convener crossover document template. The motion mandates the Education Officer “to provide a crossover document template for school and programme conveners no later than second to last council.” Furthermore, Faculty Conveners are now mandated to oversee and assist school and programme conveners in completing the convener crossover documents.
The motion is also hoped to promote “the unique ability” of school and programme convenors, who have the unique ability to speak on behalf of students at a school level, and to reduce the potentially inconsistent crossover given to incoming school and programme convenors.
TCDSU also passed a motion, proposed by SU President Shane De Rís, in support of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), in their ongoing strike action. The motion also mandates De Rís, and future SU Presidents, to coordinate TCDSU actions in support of the INMO’s strike.
In voting on the motion, the council noted that these strikes were called by the INMO following an extensive period of industrial relation dispute, and recognised that jobs for student nurses after graduation are limited in Ireland, often what they described as “low wages and harsh working conditions”.
Speaking in favour of the motion, SU President Shane De Rís said this motion was “about making sure opportunities are there for our students when they graduate, as nurses in this country are underpaid and overworked.”
This follows a previously passed motion in January 2017 that mandated TCDSU to adopt a stance in support of INMO’s vote in favour of industrial action, and a vote to strike by nurses and midwives which took place in December 2018.
