Maurice Cosgrave (7 March 1922 – 1 September 1996) was an Irish

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

leader. Cosgrave worked at the

Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp () is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel. History Longstanding military heritage Th ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He became active in the

Post Office Workers' Union The Postal and Telecommunications Workers' Union was a trade union representing communication workers in Ireland. The union was founded in 1923 when the Irish Postal Union merged with the Irish Postal Workers' Union and the Irish Post Office Eng ...

, and in 1966 was elected as its general secretary. He represented the union at 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 cent ...

(ICTU), and was President of the ICTU in 1970–1971. In this role, he developed new policies on

secondary picketing Picketing is a form of protest in which people (called pickets or picketers) congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in (" crossing the pic ...

and prioritised agreeing

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

s in industries where there had not previously been one in force. Cosgrave stood down as leader of the union in 1973, and became active in the

Labour Court A labor court (or labour court or industrial tribunal) is a governmental judiciary body which rules on labor or employment-related matters and disputes. In a number of countries, labor cases are often taken to separate national labor high courts. O ...

, serving as its chair from 1977 until 1984. In 1985, he was appointed to the

Electricity Supply Board The Electricity Supply Board (ESB; ) is a state owned (95%; the rest are owned by employees) electricity company based in Ireland with operations worldwide. While historically a monopoly, the ESB now operates as a commercial semi-state concer ...

Industrial Council, serving for three years, during which time he was involved in creating a single

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

pension scheme.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cosgrave, Maurice 1920s births 1996 deaths Presidents of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Place of birth missing