Council staff set for fresh strike action

Derry City and Strabane District council has been given notice by the union that its workers will launch a month of strike action from Monday in a resumption of strikes that had taken place across Northern Ireland in the spring.

Unite is warning, meanwhile, that the Derry City and Strabane strike is likely to be followed by similar action at other councils where a similar pay offer has been made.

The strike is in relation to a trade dispute over the 2021/2022 National Pay Award. In March, local council workers staged walk-outs in several areas after rejecting a pay offer from local government employers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of 1.75% for the 2021-22 financial year.

The council strikes were suspended to allow talks to take place but the dispute has yet to be resolved.

Derry City and Strabane council has said it expects the looming strike action, from July 18 to August 14, to cause “considerable disruption to a range of its services throughout this period”.

However, the council stressed that it remains in “continuous and meaningful negotiations with the unions to find a resolution to this dispute and Council remains firmly committed to continuing with this process to reach a positive and agreed outcome”.

Unite, meanwhile, claimed the latest pay offer provided no additional consolidated pay increase — ie a permanent rise — leaving workers unprotected from inflation.

The union’s regional officer Gareth Scott highlighted the impact the four-week strike would have: “This strike will paralyse the council. Unite has particular concentrations [union membership] among waste workers who continued to work throughout the lockdown – they expect basic respect and that means a proper consolidated improvement.”

General Secretary of Unite, Sharon Graham, offered workers her full support: “The local authority workers in Derry City and Strabane District Council are determined to win a pay improvement that protects them and their families from the surge in the cost of living.

“Management needs to recognise that a non-consolidated one-off payment does nothing to protect workers into the future.

“These are essential and frontline workers.”