Retail and hospitality chiefs say public transport unions ‘targeting smaller businesses’ with three stoppages before Christmas

Further strikes have now been announced for the remaining two Fridays – and one Saturday – before Christmas; some of the most critical days of the year for businesses in the shopping and hospitality trade.

A 48-hour strike will begin from midnight on Friday December 15, and a 24-hour strike from midnight on Friday December 22 – bringing all bus and rail services operated by public transport provider Translink to a halt.

Glyn Roberts, CEO of Retail NI and Colin Neill, CEO of Hospitality Ulster, said the dates made painful reading for their members.

“We're profoundly disappointed with this decision, which we feel is now actively targeting our retail and hospitality sector sectors at the most crucial time of the year,” they said in a joint statement to the News Letter.

“We do begin to question why these strikes are now actively targeting, in the main, smaller independent retail or small hospitality businesses. So we repeat our call for the Secretary of State to engage in this issue.

"Our members feel desperately disillusioned with the political system in Northern Ireland, where nobody really seems to care."We need to see real political leadership. We need to see a restored executive. It should be local ministers dealing with this issue, rather than always passing it off to the Secretary of State."

Translink said it is disappointed by the decision to take further strike action.

In a statement it said it is “fully committed to enter into pay negotiations once the budget issue has been resolved”.

“The budget issue, which impacts on many public sector workers, needs to be resolved at the NI Executive level,” the company said.

“We would urge our colleagues not to take this further action which will only exacerbate the financial pressures on Translink as well as impact local school children and damage the livelihoods of many businesses and their staff in the retail and hospitality sectors who depend on the busy Christmas period.

“Translink apologises for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Trade unions Unite, GMB and Siptu said their members voted in favour of the strike over what they have described as a “pay freeze” which amounts to a real-terms 11% pay cut during a cost-of-living crisis.

In a joint statement, the unions said “full responsibility for transport disruption lies with Secretary of State Chris Heaton Harris”.

They claimed Mr Heaton-Harris, who set a budget in the continued absence of a functioning Stormont Executive, “engineered a pay crisis seeking to advance a political agenda” and has “refused to intervene to resolve the pay dispute”.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This dispute rest entirely at the door of the secretary of state, who could easily resolve it by providing an adequate budget for public transport services.

GMB trade union regional organiser Peter Macklin said workers “were left with no alternative due to the refusal of the secretary of state to intervene, to provide adequate budgets for our public transport services and to meet our members’ pay expectations”.

“He bears full responsibility for the entirely avoidable disruption that will accompany this strike action,” he said.

Siptu representative Niall McNally also challenged Mr Heaton-Harris, describing him as a “political arsonist”.

“He seems to think the more fires he can light the better his chances of re-establishing Stormont,” he said.

“I think it is clear to everyone that his failed strategy can only make things worse – and this is increasingly recognised right across civic society in the region.

“It is still within the power of the secretary of state to avoid this strike if he intervenes to resolve this dispute.”

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll backed the calls for Mr Heaton-Harris to intervene.

“Public transport workers should not have to take strike in the mouth of Christmas. A proper pay rise is the least they deserve for the crucial service they provide,” he said.

“The British Government has the power to avert this strike and any disruption it might cause by intervening and resolving this pay dispute. I commend those transport workers taking strike action against a real-terms pay cut and cuts to our public services.”

A Northern Ireland Office spokesperson responded saying: “The UK Government has no authority to negotiate pay in Northern Ireland. It is for the relevant NI departments to negotiate pay policies.

“It remains the Secretary of State’s priority to see the return of locally elected, accountable and effective devolved government, which is the best way for Northern Ireland to be governed.

“The Secretary of State has commissioned a range of information and advice from the Northern Ireland Civil Service on potential measures to raise more public revenue, or otherwise to improve the sustainability of public finances in Northern Ireland, for an incoming executive to consider.”