Tens of thousands of public sector workers have lost their jobs across Northern Ireland.
BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Tens of thousands of public sector workers walked off the job across Northern Ireland on Thursday in protest at political gridlock and a region without a functioning government, with few pay rises.
Schools were closed, hospitals provided spartan services and authorities warned people against non-essential travel as people joined strikes across the road in the midst of bitterly cold weather.
The 24-hour strike by some 150,000 teachers, nurses and bus drivers was the largest strike in years in Northern Ireland, a part of England with its own local government. The government has been non-functional for almost two years, after one of the two power-sharing parties left in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules.
The Democratic Unionist Party refuses to allow Irish nationalist Sinn Féin to return to power. Under the power-sharing rules established under the Northern Ireland peace process, the government must include both British trade unionists and Irish nationalists.
Thousands of striking workers have rallied in Belfast and other cities to demand a return to power for the DUP and British authorities to give public sector workers in Northern Ireland the same pay rises as those in other parts of the country. I asked for it.
Northern Ireland Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said the British government had agreed a 3 billion pound ($3.8 billion) monetary package, but that could only be achieved if Northern Ireland’s government was back up and running.
He said: “This package has been on the table since before Christmas and will remain there and will be available to the next Northern Ireland Executive from day one.”
Workers said politicians in Belfast and London were using them as political pawns.
Teacher Linda Miller said she just wanted pay to be on par with other parts of the UK.
“We are losing teachers left, right and centre, in Doha, Dubai and everywhere else,” she said. “The education system is crumbling. Our buildings are crumbling.”