Owen Reidy has been announced as the new General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).
Mr Reidy is the outgoing Assistant General Secretary of ICTU and was appointed to the role following Patricia King's decision to step down from the post.
At a meeting today of the Executive Committee of ICTU, Mr Reidy's appointment was ratified.
He is a native of Donegal and has 24 years of experience in the Irish trade union movement.
He started his career as a union official in SIPTU and occupied a range of roles in the union representing and organising workers in the aviation, insurance and finance, non-commercial semi states and cleaning and security sectors.
He was appointed one of SIPTU's five Divisional Organisers in 2013 when he managed and ran the unions transport, energy, aviation and construction division.
During this time, he was involved in a number of high profile and successful industrial disputes including the Greyhound lockout, the Luas dispute and pay disputes in the CIE transport companies.
In 2016, Mr Reidy took up the position of Assistant General Secretary of ICTU with primary responsibility for the Congress in Northern Ireland.
Mr Reidy came through a competitive interview process to be selected as the new General Secretary.
Commenting on his appointment, Mr Reidy said he was delighted and humbled to be chosen for the position.
"I want to pay tribute to my friend, colleague and mentor Patricia King, for her work and the valuable legacy she has left us all in her work both in SIPTU and as General Secretary of our Congress," Mr Reidy said.
"Our number one priority must be to transpose the recent Adequate Minimum Wages directive which has a transformative potential when it comes to collective bargaining in Ireland, and to legislate for the LEEF High Level Group report on collective bargaining in Ireland," he added.
ICTU President Kevin Callinan said Mr Reidy's appointment comes at a time when the trade union movement is entering an exciting new phase.
"In his previous roles with SIPTU and as the lead Congress official for Northern Ireland, he has shown that he has the qualities to unite the movement in pursuit of such core objectives," Mr Callinan said.
