Call for workers to converge on Stormont over spiralling cost-of-living

Organised by the Northern Irish wing of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), the demonstration is set to converge on Stormont at noon on June 25.

Owen Reidy, assistant general secretary of the ICTU, said: “Workers and their families can no longer endure inaction on the cost of living crisis. Inflation is now at 9% and predicted by some to increase to 11%.

Workers make no apologies for seeking to protect their living standards.

“Many of these workers who are hard pressed and struggling with in work poverty are the very same workers who guided society through the pandemic.”

News of the protest came on Thursday just as Boris Johnson warned against increasing wages to match inflation levels.

Mr Johnson, who barely survived a revolt in his own party this week, warned that the Government would “fan the flames of further price increases” if it tried to spend its way out of the cost-of-living crisis.

“We can’t fix the increase in the cost of living just by increasing wages to match the surge in prices.

“I think it’s naturally a good thing for wages to go up as skills and productivity increase – that’s what we want to see,” he said.

“But when a country faces an inflationary problem you can’t just pay more and spend more, you have to find ways of tackling the underlying causes of inflation.

“If wages continue to chase the increase in prices then we risk a wage-price spiral such as this country experienced in the 1970s.”

Instead he said ministers would ease the pain by working to “finish the right-to-own reforms Margaret Thatcher began in the 1980s” by extending the scheme to the 2.5 million households “trapped” in their housing association homes.

To help low-paid workers, Mr Johnson pledged a change in the rules so housing benefits can be spent in securing a first mortgage and going towards payments.

Fuel prices: Fresh data tells public where cheapest petrol and diesel are to be found in Northern Ireland

Fifth electricity firm ups its prices in Northern Ireland since March – here is how big each supplier’s hikes were