Strike will bring all bus and rail services in Northern Ireland to a standstill

Members of Unite, GMB and SIPTU employed by Translink will hold a further 24-hour strike action commencing on a staggered basis from 00.01am Friday [December 21]. The strike follows a two-day stoppage last week and will bring all bus and rail services to a standstill.

The strike follows ballots by union members which returned percentages in the high nineties for strike action in pursuit of a cost-of-living pay increase. Unions were informed that Translink could only offer a pay freeze because of the harsh budget imposed on the department for infrastructure by the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris. Accounting for inflation (RPI) this amounts to a real terms pay cut of 11.4 per cent.

While the secretary of state has offered a funding package, which he claims is adequate to address workers’ public sector pay demands, he has made it contingent on progress in wider political talks to re-establish the Stormont executive. As a result, the pay freeze remains in place.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is completely unacceptable that public transport workers are being denied a pay increase during the worst cost of living crisis in generations.

“There is excuse for the secretary of state failing to provide adequate funding for a pay increase for public transport workers. Transport workers have been left with no option but to go ahead with their planned strike action. They have the full support of Unite in doing so.”

GMB regional organiser Peter Macklin challenged the secretary of state: “Chris Heaton-Harris is cruelly dangling funding for a pay increase in front of public sector workers but is linking the release of funds to progress in the political talks. He is seeking to politicise the issue of public sector pay and the proper funding of public sector services. Workers face an 11 per cent real-terms pay cut, that is not something that should be leveraged in negotiations or made a divisive issue. Adequate funding for public transport and for a cost of living increase for workers is something that must be provided by right.”

SIPTU Regional Organiser Niall McNally said: “Chris Heaton-Harris is consciously making public sector workers and funding for public services a hostage to fortune. Indeed, the weaponising of public sector funding and public sector workers’ pay in this way amounts to a divide and conquer strategy to advance the secretary of state’s political agenda. Workers won’t be played and we won’t be divided – we stand together demanding fair and proper funding for public transport services.

“Public transport workers continue to face a pay freeze – they have been left with no alternative but to proceed with this strike action.”

Workforce representatives from all three unions will gather in the early new year to identify further strike dates.