Trade unions and their members have a compelling case for the strike action planned across the public sector on Thursday.
Between 150,000 and 170,000 workers will be involved in a generalised day of action that will touch every aspect of the services we all depend upon.
Nonetheless, there is widespread support among the general public for the strike, though talk of civil disobedience, as advanced by Nipsa, would seem to be an unnecessary distraction at this stage.
Schools will be shut. Transport will be difficult and possibly dangerous; with Translink staff taking part there will be no buses and trains, while, with sub-zero temperatures and snow forecast, roads won’t be gritted. But perhaps the greatest impact will be felt in health and social care.
The chief executives of the health trusts have warned of disruption on a “massive and unprecedented scale”. At best, they say, the public can expect services similar to that normally delivered on a Christmas Day - an alarming prospect.
It should not be overlooked that trust bosses, despite the challenges Thursday will bring, have been at pains to empathise with the reasons for the action.
It is, they say, “a tragedy” that their colleagues - “the backbone of our health and social care service” - feel they face no alternative but to strike.
Mr Heaton-Harris and the NIO don’t appear to understand that for the spectators in the peculiar cul de sac into which Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has crashed unionism, intransigence is a virtue
They have called for all staff to be properly paid, and reflected the frustration that “they have been told publicly that funding for a pay award is potentially available, but not yet released”.
This brings us to the political aspect of this crisis. Secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris has already conceded that public sector works deserve a pay rise and earmarked a substantial chunk of the £3.3 billion Stormont funding package he announced before Christmas.
He won’t, however, make the funds available until power-sharing is restored - a position intended to put pressure on the DUP. This betrays at best a certain naivety, at worst a hopeless cynicism. It is also bewildering that Mr Heaton-Harris and the NIO don’t appear to understand that for the spectators in the peculiar cul de sac into which Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has crashed unionism, intransigence is a virtue.
A recall of Stormont and whatever has passed for talks at Hillsborough won’t change that position. In another indictment of political dysfunction, perhaps the best we can hope for is that Thursday’s strikes will encourage a change of direction.
