Massive public sector strike spreads across Northern Ireland

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Strikers were angry at the Tories and DUP

Public sector workers attending a strike rally in Belfast (Photo: Unite the Union NI on Twitter)

As the political crisis continues in Northern Ireland, tens of thousands of public sector workers took part in the largest strike in Northern Ireland’s history on Thursday.

Teachers picketed outside both Catholic and Protestant schools, medical workers stood defiantly outside hospitals, and bus and train drivers picketed transport hubs. Around 170,000 public sector workers, more than half of Northern Ireland’s 220,000 people, went on strike demanding higher wages.

On the picket line at St Michael’s Primary School in Belfast, Niall Moreland, a learning support assistant, said the purpose of the strike was to force politicians to “pay people a decent salary”.

Naomi Moreland, another staff member at the school, said: “We are struggling to pay our bills while also providing for the school’s breakfast club and classroom supplies.” “The DUP needs to get Stormont back on its feet and running so we can pay everyone so we can deal with the cost of living crisis,” she told Socialist Worker.

The devolved Stormont parliament has not been in operation for almost two years, since February 2022, when the DUP left the power-sharing government with republican Sinn Féin. The party said it would not return to power in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.

He said there would be post-Brexit trade checks between Britain and Northern Ireland as part of the Conservative Party’s compromise plan for Brexit. This was an ideological threat to the DUP’s bigots, who have boycotted parliament ever since.

At the last parliamentary election in May 2022, Sinn Féin became Stormont’s largest party for the first time. Under Northern Ireland’s power-sharing agreement, the chief executive cannot be reinstated without support from both parties.

If an executive is not formed by 23:59 on Thursday, Northern Ireland Conservative party secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has a legal obligation to call an early election. But he has postponed this deadline multiple times and has indicated he intends to postpone it again.

This impasse means public sector workers are not receiving pay increases. Parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) protested outside the offices of DUP leader Geoffrey Donaldson on Monday. They fully supported the strike to reopen Stormont.

The unions that went on strike were Unison, GMB, the Association of Radiographers, NAHT, Nipsa, the Royal College of Physicians, Unite, NASUWT, the National Organization of Teachers of Ireland, the Chartered Institute of Physiotherapists, the Ulster Teachers’ Union, the British Dietetic Association and the RCN. Ta.

Joe is a teacher at Aquinas Grammar School and a NASUWT member. “There was tremendous support from the public during the previous strikes carried out by the unions, and that feeling is now even stronger,” he said.

People entered town and city centers from picket lines and held rallies. Outside Belfast City Hall, strikers heard a number of local trade union leaders condemning the DUP and Heaton-Harris.

Heaton-Harris told the union there is no money for raises. And last month he dangled billions in front of the DUP in a bid to lure them back to Stormont. But he still refuses to pay workers, insisting only devolved governments can negotiate with trade unions.

Many strikers talked about how politicians have war funds, citing Britain’s bombing of Yemen and Israel’s support for the genocide of Palestinians.

United Area Secretary Susan Fitzgerald told the audience: “The collective effort shown today shows the power of the working class movement.”

Speaking at the strike rally in Derry was Eamonn McCann, a veteran of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement and a member of the socialist People Before Profit (PBP) party. “There are now more trade unionists in the north of Ireland than members of all political parties combined,” he said.

PBP held a post-rally rally for trade unionists and strike supporters. Gerry Carroll, PBP Member of Parliament for Northern Ireland, said union leaders were missing an opportunity to call for a further date for action now.