Three more days of public transport strikes in NI announced
Public transport users have been urged to brace themselves for major disruption in the run up to Christmas.
Three more days of strikes by public transport workers in Northern Ireland are set to take place in a row over pay.
A strike last Friday saw bus and rail services halted across the region, making a significant impact in the run up to Christmas.
Further strikes will take place on Friday December 15, Saturday December 16 and Friday December 22 during some of the busiest days of the year for festive shopping and the hospitality trade.
Trade unions Unite, GMB and Siptu said their members voted in favour of the strike over what they have described as a "pay freeze" which amounts to a real-terms pay cut during a cost-of-living crisis.
They have called for Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris to intervene while the Stormont Executive remains collapsed and make pay awards to workers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is completely unacceptable that Translink workers are facing a huge real terms pay cut, due to the proposed pay freeze."
“This dispute rest entirely at the door of the secretary of state, who could easily resolve it by providing an adequate budget for public transport services. The Translink workers have the unflinching backing of Unite. In the coming days, workers will be taking their campaign for decent pay direct to the door of the secretary of state.”
Speaking for GMB trade union, regional organiser Peter Macklin said: “Chris Heaton-Harris seeks to engineer an industrial relations crisis in Northern Ireland through imposing brutal budgets on the departments to advance his political agenda. He seeks to weaponise the collective punishment of workers and the most vulnerable in a wider political game. This is completely disgraceful. Workers and our public services will not be the collateral damage in a game of chicken."
“The unions have agreed three further strike days before Christmas. We were left with no alternative due to the refusal of the secretary of state to intervene, to provide adequate budgets for our public transport services and to meet our members’ pay expectations. He bears full responsibility for the entirely avoidable disruption that will accompany this strike action.”
SIPTU regional organiser for his union’s members in Translink is Niall McNally who challenged the secretary of state: “Chris Heaton-Harris is behaving like a political arsonist. He seems to think the more fires he can light the better his chances of re-establishing Stormont. I think it is clear to everyone that his failed strategy can only make things worse – and this is increasingly recognised right across civic society in the region."
“The secretary of state needs to step back and pull Northern Ireland from the brink. A return to stable government in Northern Ireland requires adequate funding for basic public services, including public transport – funding sufficient to enable a proper pay increase for public sector workers. It is still within the power of the secretary of state to avoid this strike if he intervenes to resolve this dispute.”
A Translink spokesperson said: “We have been formally advised that UNITE, GMB and SIPTU unions intend to take further industrial action on Friday 15th December, Saturday 16th December and Friday 22nd December."
“We are disappointed with this decision by our Union colleagues which will disrupt bus and rail services that so many of our passengers rely on particularly at this busy time of the year."
“We are fully committed to enter into pay negotiations once the budget issue has been resolved. The budget issue, which impacts on many public sector workers, needs to be resolved at the NI Executive level."
“We would urge our colleagues not to take this further action which will only exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink as well as impact local school children and damage the livelihoods of many businesses and their staff in the retail and hospitality sectors who depend on the busy Christmas period."