‘My members are angry’- biggest strike in Northern Ireland’s recent history as tens of thousands walk out

A mass rally of thousands of striking public sector workers has heard calls for politicians to return to Stormont and an appeal for the UK government to abandon its “failed political strategy” and award a pay rise to public sector workers in Northern Ireland.

Feeder parades of striking workers arrived in Belfast city centre at lunchtime chanting: “What do we want? Fair pay! When do we want it? Now!” and “the workers united will never be defeated” as they marched towards the city centre.

Owen Reidy from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions addressed the rally at Belfast City Hall.

He said: “The time for hollow words is over. I do sincerely hope Stormont comes back, but if it does come back it has to be different, it has to treat public sector workers and all workers across Northern Ireland with respect.

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“Today is historic, not only is it potentially the largest mobilisation of the trade union movement in this state’s history, but I think by your actions you have taken a decision to turn the page of history, to say we are not going back to the failed ways of the past where public services are under-resourced. You are not going back to the past where you are getting negligible or no pay increases.

“You are going to demand a different future.”

Teaching unions told the rally the DUP should return to Stormont.

Mark McTaggart of INTO said: “Jeffrey Donaldson of DUP has spent nearly two years outside Stormont refusing to let the executive sit because of his concerns over a sea border.

“Yet he is more than happy to have a sea border for pay for public sector workers.

“It is time that somebody knocked their heads together and got them to get back to their places of work.”

Justin McCamphill from the NASUWT said: “To the DUP, we say get back into government.

“We fully understand that there are issues arising from Brexit that are problematic but these issues must be addressed within the agreed political framework.

“The Tories have taken our money, the DUP should not take our hope.”

An estimated 150,000 public sector workers are taking part in the walkouts over pay with crowds this morning gathered at the front gates of the Stormont estate in Belfast.

The head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Jayne Brady, met the protesting workers.

Striking public sector workers also gathered outside the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Office in Belfast.

Union members chanted: “We’re here to embarrass Chris Heaton-Harris.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has been urged to intervene to release funding to make delayed pay awards in the absence of devolved government.

However, he has refused, insisting the matter is a devolved one.

Patricia McKeown, regional secretary at Unison, told this afternoon’s rally hat Northern Ireland’s politicians need to exercise responsibility towards those who elected them.

“I don’t remember when we went to the polls last time, any political party standing on a platform which said we will impoverish the people of Northern Ireland, we will wreck equal pay for public sector workers, we will run down the National Health Service, we will neglect our schools and social care system, our public services.

“None of them I remember got a mandate for that but it happened anyway.

“We are the people who will hold them to account.

“No more nonsense about we are here because we have got a mandate and start exercising your responsibilities towards the people who elected you.”

The rally ended with a call for the government to abandon its “failed political strategy” and award a pay rise to public sector workers in Northern Ireland.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy said: “We have overcome many significant obstacles and one more remains.

“That obstacle is (Northern Ireland Secretary Chris) Heaton-Harris and his refusal to accept reality and his continuing to pursue a failed political strategy.

“We will overcome that strategy too. This fight continues until we win, and we will win.”

Meanwhile, all aspects of health and social care treatment are being impacted by industrial action, the Department of Health has said.

A social media post said: “The health service remains under significant pressure.

“All aspects of health and social care are being impacted and there will be delays for those seeking treatment.

“Stay safe and use health services appropriately.

“If your case is an emergency, don’t put off seeking treatment.”

A union official in Co Tyrone has said workers feel ignored by Stormont politicians.

Bryan Hayes, from the Unison union, was on the picket line outside the Education Authority building in Omagh.

He said: “We feel that we are totally ignored by Stormont.

“The politicians, the only time you see them is when they are looking for your votes on the doorstep. My colleagues feel the only way is to come out and picket and show we will not be ignored.

“Our pay is not going up but everything else is. There is no help from government.”

Carmel Gates from union Nipsa, who was among workers taking part in a picket outside Stormont, said that strike action is “just the beginning”.

She said: “My members are angry and they are not going to back down.

“This is not something which is a temporary fight. They are so angry at how they have been treated.

“This is the beginning, we will escalate.”

She added: “The Secretary of State needs to know that, this is not the end.

“We need him to go forward now with a budget and we need a budget which is going to sustain our services into the future.”

Public sector workers in Northern Ireland have not received pay uplifts given to counterparts elsewhere in the UK due to the ongoing political impasse at Stormont.

The Government has offered a financial package worth more than £3 billion to accompany the return of a devolved executive in Belfast.

While the package includes money to make the outstanding pay awards, Mr Heaton-Harris has made clear it will not be made available unless Stormont returns.

Ms Gates, general secretary of Nipsa, said: “It shows the anger of public sector workers who haven’t had a decent pay rise in more than 10 years.

“Now we believe we are being used as a political pawn in a game by the Secretary of State.”

“We know that the sanctions budget that he imposed and the fact that we are suffering from that has been to force the DUP back into power.

“What was put on the table by the Secretary of State before Christmas is probably not enough to resolve public service pay now and into the future.

“I don’t even believe it’s enough to settle pay awards for now, never mind the fact there is no recurrent budget.

“I also don’t believe that what is on the table is enough to create stability.

“This building behind us is empty, we want an Assembly back, we don’t want an Assembly back on any terms, we want an Assembly with a proper fiscal floor and therefore stability into the future.”

Teacher Linda Millar said she was striking so workers in Northern Ireland could get pay parity with the rest of the UK.

Ms Millar, a teacher at Ballyclare Secondary School and a member of the Ulster Teachers’ Union (UTU), was on the picket line at Stormont on Thursday morning with her one-year-old son Ed.

She said: “Our beginning teachers get £8,000 a year less.

“We are losing teachers left, right and centre to Doha, Dubai, everywhere.

“The education system is crumbling. Our buildings are crumbling, we don’t have educational psychologists.

“We want to feel valued as workers and we don’t have the resources.

“It is really important to come out today to support everybody.”

Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said public sector workers should get pay rises irrespective of whether Stormont returns.

She said: “I think part of the issue is that people see that the UK Government is using the strikes as leverage to try and force politicians back into work and while I understand why they are doing that, I think it’s immoral.

“People have a claim on pay which is irrefutable and needs to be addressed, irrespective of whether Stormont returns or not.

“It is no more legitimate to hold people’s pay to ransom than it is for the DUP to hold the institutions to ransom.

“We need to get back to proper politics where we actually do the jobs we are paid to do and we pay people properly.

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said public sector workers gone on strike because they feel they have “nowhere else to turn”.

Ms O’Neill told the BBC on Thursday: “It is a very difficult day for our public sector workers. However, they feel forced to take to the picket lines this morning in defense of what is reasonable and fair, which is fair pay and working conditions for the job they do for us all on a daily basis.

“I regret the fact that they are being forced on to the picket lines this morning. I regret the fact that they have had to take this action. However, I absolutely understand it because they feel like they have nowhere else to turn.

“I can only hope that (DUP leader) Jeffrey Donaldson is listening and hears the plight of the workers and, even at this late juncture, makes the right call and joins with the rest of us around that executive table and let us do our best to try and support these workers and ensure they have proper pay and conditions.”

There has been no functioning powersharing government in Northern Ireland for almost two years due to a DUP boycott of the institutions in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

The DUP has resisted calls to drop its veto and return to Stormont to enable the pay rises to be implemented.

The party has accused the UK Government of “political blackmail” and has insisted the pay issue should be dealt with separately from the impasse over trade.

The strike is set to have a major impact with schools closed, hospitals offering only Christmas Day-level services, public transport cancelled as well as limited gritting of the roads in zero-degree temperatures.

The Department for Infrastructure has urged the public not to travel unless it is “absolutely essential”, saying there will only be limited gritting on a small number of roads including the M1, M2, A1 and A4.

Parades, rallies and demonstrations are scheduled to take place across the day.

The largest demonstrations will take place at Belfast City Hall, the Guildhall Square in Derry, Omagh court house and Enniskillen town hall.

A large policing operation is also in place.

On Wednesday night, trade unions accused Mr Heaton-Harris of having “failed the people of Northern Ireland”.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy said: “The Secretary of State’s strategy has clearly failed and it has failed the people of Northern Ireland.

“The trade union movement have won the popular argument, as witnessed by the support we have seen from women’s groups, the voluntary sector, students’ unions, the 50 chief executives in the public sector, the PSNI Chief Constable and the head of the NICS (Northern Ireland Civil Service) and the public at large.”

Deputy general secretary of the Nipsa union, Patrick Mulholland, warned that the action could escalate if the dispute is not resolved.

“Following the failed attempts to restore the Assembly and the failure of the Secretary of State to move from his position of releasing the necessary funds to end the action, the strike will only be the start of the disruption,” he said.

“The continued disregard for our members’ concerns will leave us with no choice but to escalate our actions.

“The upcoming weeks will inevitably witness intensified industrial action to draw attention to the urgent need for a needs-based budget to underpin our public services and a fair and decent pay rise for all public sector workers.”

Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said Stormont parties needed to stand together to ensure public services in Northern Ireland are adequately funded.

She said: “As we know, before Christmas, the British Government, Chris Heaton-Harris, called an end to the two-way negotiation they have been engaged in with the DUP.

“He also put down additional finances, albeit no panacea, but money we could be putting directly into the pockets of workers right now.

“Collectively, we have a job of work to do to fight back against the Tory austerity agenda, which has chronically underfunded public services for over a decade.

“We could have taken that money, paid it directly to workers and fought the fight, which is what we need to do collectively on behalf of public services, on behalf of public sector workers to ensure that we can properly fund services here.

“I think there is a battle ahead for us, in terms of the Tories, in how this place is funded.

“I welcome there has been a recognition from the Treasury that the north has been underfunded. That opens the door for a political battle for us all.”

In a statement, Mr Heaton-Harris said it was “regrettable” that the Stormont Assembly had not been resurrected to access funds to make the pay awards to public sector workers.

Thursday also marks the deadline in current legislation for the resumption of Stormont, or the Secretary of State is obliged to call a fresh election.

Mr Heaton-Harris has made clear he will extend that deadline and introduce further legislation to ensure continued delivery of public services in Northern Ireland.

“Today’s strike will be disruptive for people across Northern Ireland. I understand the serious concerns that people across Northern Ireland have about the impact this action will have on vital public services,” he said.

“While public sector pay is devolved, the UK Government has offered a fair and generous package worth over £3 billion which would address public sector pay and provides more than £1 billion to stabilise public services.

“This will require ministers being back to work in Stormont so that decisions on governing can be taken in the round.”

Mr Heaton-Harris said he is “deeply disappointed” the funding offer has not been taken up after a last-ditch attempt to revive Stormont on Wednesday failed.

“This package has been on the table since before Christmas and will remain there, available on day one for an incoming Northern Ireland Executive,” he said.

“It is regrettable that the NI parties were unable to come together yesterday to elect a Speaker and restore the Executive.

“The people of Northern Ireland deserve local political leadership from representatives they have elected to govern on their behalf.

“The UK Government has made a significant offer that would help address the challenges facing public sector pay and Northern Ireland’s finances. It is time for the NI parties to take decisions on how they will best serve the interests of the people of Northern Ireland.”