Across Northern Ireland, UNISON members working mainly in education support services and some in local councils will be on strike tomorrow.
This is because the employers side of the National Joint Council for Local Government Services which covers these workers in Northern Ireland, as well as England and Wales, has refused to renegotiate on the 1% pay offer.
The trade union side claim was designed to call a halt to poverty pay in local government and schools. UNISON is part of the claim for a better offer and to make the living wage the bottom rate of NJC pay scales.
These UNISON members have consecutive years of NJC pay freezes followed by a below-inflation settlement in 2013. It was only the application of a one off non-consolidated pay award of £250 in 2011 and 2012 – approved by the current minister for education in response to strong pressure from trade unions – that kept low paid school workers from sliding further into financial difficulties.
Pay matters to the Northern Ireland economy because communities depend on people being in work and earning decent pay – pay that is spent where members live and boosts local businesses and creates new jobs.
Pay affects pension contributions, pay during periods of illness, annual, parental and carers leave to mention the major elements influenced by low pay.
The majority of workers across the education support service are women and many work on part-time contracts with wages only two thirds of equivalent workers.
There is little or no support for child or elder care and the parental rights are the worst of all the public sector.
UNISON is calling on members of the Northern Ireland assembly and local councillors to address the issues involved in this dispute.
The message should go out to the employers’ negotiators – who include representation from Northern Ireland – to get back to the negotiating table with the central trade union team and settle this dispute.
If there is no movement on the employers side, there certainly will be further action on the workers side in early autumn.
UNISON will be picketing the headquarters Northern Ireland’s five education and library boards from 8am to 11am tomorrow.
The venues are:
- Belfast Education & Library Board, Academy Street, Belfast;
- South Eastern Education & Library Board, Grahamsbridge Road, Dundonald;
- North Eastern Education & Library Board, County Hall, Ballymena;
- Southern Education & Library Board, The Mall, Armagh;
- Western Education & Library Board, board headquarters, Hospital Road, Omagh;
- Derry District office, Central Library, Foyle Street, Derry,
There will also rallies organised by the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions:
- Belfast – Grosvenor Hall, 12.30pm;
- Derry – assemble at Ebrington Square at 12.30pm to walk across the Peace Bridge to a rally at the Guildhall at 1pm.
