Strike reflects workers’ frustrations at cost-of-living pressures and broken promises

Government must gain workers’ trust

As Unite members in the public sector prepare to take to the picket lines across the country tomorrow, the union said that the strike reflects workers’ frustration at cost-of-living pressures and the government’s failure to honour previous commitments.  Unite also panned today’s government statement which the union said once again failed to address workers’ demands.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “On the eve of a national strike, today’s government statement was more about the recent budget than workers’ pay packets. Tomorrow public sector workers will stand together to demand an inflation-beating pay increase. 

“If the government wants to avoid further escalation and gain workers’ trust, they must come to the table with a fair offer that workers can accept.”

Unite public sector members in a range of workplaces – including local authority personnel, college lecturers, ambulance workers, hospital support staff and many more – will be among the hundreds of thousands of workers taking strike action.

The union’s Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: “Ever-increasing prices mean public sector workers have already seen their pay fall in real terms. These are the workers who keep the country running and constantly have to do more with less. Our members are determined to fight for a pay increase which protects their living standards”.