Joint trade union body plans town hall meetings, rallies and protests across Northern Ireland in new cost-of-living campaign as strikes continue

Industrial relations have deteriorated significantly in recent months in Northern Ireland as workers demand pay rises to match the soaring rate of inflation.

Industrial action, including strikes, have rocked Northern Ireland since the spring in both the public and private sector.

On Monday, over 2,000 BT and Openreach workers represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), including 999 call handlers at a call centre in Portadown, staged a one-day walk-out.

Also on Monday, workers employed by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive represented by the Unite trade union - now into their ninth week of a strike - staged a protest outside the Titanic Centre in Belfast as the arms-length public body took part in an event inside.

As this was going on the NIC-ICTU, an umbrella body of unions which represents more than 200,000 people across Northern Ireland, launched its Workers Demand Better campaign at Stormont.

It said the campaign is in response to the cost-of-living crisis and called for “serious political solutions” to challenging economic problems.

The unions intend to take their message to the public with a series of town hall meetings in communities across Northern Ireland.

It also said that rallies and protests would be held at “strategic times”.

Assistant general secretary Owen Reidy said: “The NIC-ICTU intends to mobilise workers across Northern Ireland and lead a progressive movement that demands better for workers after a decade of pay stagnation.

“Emerging from Covid-19, workers and their families expected a new approach to work and rewarding those who work.

“An economy that included everyone and worked for everyone.

“Many of the workers who were lauded as ‘essential’ during Covid are now being treated with contempt and they have had enough and are not prepared to see their pay fall further behind, hence the unprecedented industrial action we will see across Northern Ireland in the coming period.

“We intend to engage with workers and communities across Northern Ireland, lobby politicians both here and at Westminster, hold protests and rallies at strategic times and demand that we see stronger better workers’ rights, where unions can collective bargaining with employers and demand for a better social wage, such as better access to affordable childcare, transport and other services.”

Meanwhile, teachers in the NASUWT trade union continue to stage industrial action short of a strike in Northern Ireland's schools - something that had begun before the summer holidays.

They are soon to be joined by several other teaching unions, however, after members of the INTO, NEU, and several others voted in favour of industrial action over pay and working conditions in recent ballots.

There have also been various strikes and other forms of industrial action at other public sector employers this year, including those employed directly by the Education Authority such as bus drivers and school support staff.

UK-wide strikes by Royal Mail workers have also impacted Northern Ireland, with further strike-dates to come in the lead-up to Christmas unless the dispute between the CWU trade union and Royal Mail is resolved.