Unite the Union, Ireland Region

Workers in Roads, River, Forestry and Ferry workers and other civil service commence initial, weeklong strike action for pay improvement

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Unite the union NI

Joint Unite-GMB Press Release

Strike action by industrial civil servants set to commence from midnight 20^th April and continue to 26^th April

Industrial action by members of Unite and GMB follow ballots of 91 percent and 80 percent in favour of strike respectively. – workers will join wider civil service industrial action involving NIPSA and PCS

Unite and GMB members employed in the industrial civil service, including the Roads Service, the Forestry Service, the Rivers Agency and the Strangford to Portaferry ferry service will commence strike action from 00.01am on April 20^th. The strike action is likely to paralyse activities across these services and is set to continue until Midnight on April 26^th.

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Posted in Campaign for Decent Pay, Northern Ireland news, Press Releases, Public Services | Tagged Forestry Service, GMB, NIPSA, PCS, Portaferry, rivers agency, Roads Service, Sharon Graham, Strangford, Strangford ferry, Unite | Leave a comment

Newry Mourne and Down council services to be heavily impacted by industrial action from April 10th

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Unite the union NI

Members of GMB, NIPSA and SIPTU commence work-to-rule from Monday 10^th April, to be joined by Unite from 12^th April

Industrial action by members of all four trade unions at council proceeds after management renege on commitment to partnership-based job evaluation process

Trade unions at Newry, Mourne and Down District Council confirmed that industrial action is to commence at the local authority body. The action is set to commence with a work-to-rule by members of GMB, NIPSA and SIPTU on Monday April 10^th with members of Unite the union joining the action from April 12^th.

The unions have warned that the industrial action, although confined to a ‘work-to-rule’ at this stage, is likely to result in significant impact to council services including those at leisure centres and with bin collections.

The industrial dispute proceeds after members of all four unions voted for both strike action and action short of strike action in ballots. The dispute centres on attempts by management to ditch an earlier commitment reached in 2021 to a partnership-based approach for job evaluations. Management are also seeking to remove allowances for new staff members – creating a two-tier workforce. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is one of the last councils to meaningful engage with trade unions in the RPA process – despite the new councils coming into being 8 years ago.

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Posted in Campaign for Decent Pay, Northern Ireland news, Press Releases, Public Services | Tagged GMB, industrial action, Kieran Ellison, Newry Mourne Down District Council, NIPSA, review of public administration, SIPTU, Unite | Leave a comment

Right to Strike: Unite vows that High Court ruling will not silence workers fighting for fair pay

Posted on March 23, 2023 by unitetheunion

Unite examining all options including appeal

Union determined to secure pay increase for mechanical workers

23 March: Trade union Unite, which represents workers throughout Ireland, stated today (Thursday) that it is considering an appeal of this morning’s High Court ruling granting mechanical engineering firm Jones Engineering (HA O’Neil) an injunction pending trial to prevent strike action proceeding on 31 March.

Commenting in the wake of today’s High Court ruling, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This totally unacceptable and highly questionable ruling looks like an attempt to prevent workers in Ireland from taking industrial action in pursuit of legitimate aims. But the High Court will not succeed in silencing workers fighting for fair pay.

“Unite is examining all options for an appeal, up to and including the European courts, and we stand ready to defend our members against any and all attacks.”

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Posted in Press Releases, Republic of Ireland news | Tagged High Court, industrial action, industrial relations, Right to Strike, Sharon Graham, Tom Fitzgerald, Unite ROI | Leave a comment

NI childcare crisis: Chris Heaton-Harris must ensure Budget delivers for children, parents and childminders

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Unite the union NI

Ratio reform overdue as childminders flee sector

Unite seeking urgent meeting with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Trade union Unite, which organises Registered Childminders throughout Northern Ireland, is seeking a meeting with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, to clarify which elements, if any, of the additional childcare funding announced in last week’s Budget have been earmarked for Northern Ireland.

Speaking today (Monday 20 March), Unite’s Susan Fitzgerald said that working parents and women working as childminders are facing a growing childcare crisis.

Unite’s RCM members care for children in their own homes, providing a vital child-centred service to working parents. Yet the predominantly women workers providing that service, and the working parents who depend on it, are facing a crisis, with seven in 10 childminders considering leaving the sector due to difficulty making ends meet. Unite’s RCM Branch has argued that the most effective and sustainable way to address this crisis is to reform the current child-to-childminder ratios.

Commenting, Susan Fitzgerald said:

“Parents working outside the home depend on other workers – predominantly women – caring for children inside their own home. Yet public policy is failing both sets of workers.

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Portadown workers resolute on pickets at Kingspan Water & Energy

Posted on March 20, 2023 by Unite the union NI

Unite slams company for piling money into shareholders’ pockets but denying workers their bonus and fair pay

All-out strike action follows big rejection of inadequate eve of strike offer

Unite the union members at Kingspan Water & Energy Ltd have commenced all-out strike action today [Monday, 20 March 2023]. Pickets went up at the company’s Portadown site from 6am. The strike is severely impacting production at the factory which employs 200 and which manufacturers fuel and water tanks.

The industrial action follows an overwhelming 99 per cent vote for strike action and 65 per cent rejection of an inadequate eve of strike offer from management which fell well short of Unite members’ demands for a cost of living pay increase.

The Portadown workers are also angry that they have been excluded from a £1,000 cost of living payment that was provided to all other Kingspan Water & Energy employees.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham expressed her support for the striking workers: “The Kingspan workers can count on the full support of their union, Unite, as they strike to win the pay increase and bonus they deserve.

“It is our members’ hard work which delivers Kingspan’s huge profits so it is only fair they get their slice of the pie. Kingspan can well afford to provide their employees with a cost of living pay increase and they should do exactly that.”

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