17th January 2024
The following ICTU statement was issued after today’s meeting of the Executive Council of Congress, which was attended by INTO’s John Boyle, General Secretary and Deirdre O Connor, Deputy General Secretary/General Treasurer.
At today’s Executive Council meeting of the ICTU unanimous support was voiced for all our Northern Ireland affiliate unions engaging in industrial across Northern Ireland tomorrow.
Speaking after the meeting Owen Reidy General Secretary of Congress stated, “All our affiliate unions in the Republic of Ireland stand full square behind the 150,000 trade union members taking industrial action tomorrow which will ultimately be the largest industrial dispute in the history of Northern Ireland. Public service workers in Northern Ireland are being used as political pawns by this discredited Tory government. Many of these workers have not had a pay increase for 3 years, despite the post covid situation and the cost-of-living crisis. The money is available, but workers are being held to ransom. This is unacceptable and not sustainable. They are standing up for public services, their jobs, and the citizens who use public services that have been under-resourced for some time.”
Owen Reidy said “I look forward to travelling to Belfast to speak at the rally and to express the support and solidarity of all unions in the Republic of Ireland to our members in Northern Ireland. Our government in the Republic of Ireland should be aware of the consequences of a failure to reach an agreement on public sector pay and the expansion of public services in this jurisdiction. We want to ensure that all our public services in both jurisdictions are adequately funded and those workers who provide such services receive decent pay increases.”