Northern Ireland school transport strike to disrupt education of 60,000 pupils as Unite, SIPTU and GMB trade unions take action

Teachers across NI are also engaging in repeated strikes in a long-running dispute over pay.

The transport union ballot results are unprecedented in that they were conducted by all three unions representing frontline Translink workers.

A spokesperson for the Education Authority (EA) said: “The EA has been informed by Translink that they are expecting there will be no train or bus services – Ulsterbus, Goldliner, Metro or Glider, operating on Friday 1st December, due to Industrial action by SIPTU, GMB and UNITE unions.

“In addition, the Education Authority (EA) has been notified by UNITE the Union that members across the organisation are being called to take part in strike action on Friday 1st December in relation to a trade dispute linked to the Review of EA Pay and Grading.

“Where possible, we are taking steps to mitigate the impact of the action, however, given the Industrial action by Translink on the same day, we are expecting significant disruption to school transport in particular, as well as disruption to some school meals and cleaning services. The strike action will also have an impact on the availability of Classroom Assistants which will affect Special Schools in particular.”

The EA said it would post regular updates on www.eani.org.uk/industrialactionupdates and social media.

Over 57,000 children and young people in receipt of bus passes will be impacted, as well as fare paying pupils.

The EA said it was also anticipating some disruption to EA (yellow) bus services.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham laid the blame with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

“Chris Heaton-Harris has imposed a brutal budget settlement on the Department for Infrastructure which provides no funding for a pay increase for bus and rail workers," she said last week. "Translink workers have voted overwhelmingly for strike action – the Secretary of State must now intervene to properly fund public transport in order to avoid what will be a debilitating and disruptive strike action on the public transport system of Northern Ireland.”