Strike while the iron’s hot!

Despite heavy overnight snowfall rendering half the roads in Tyrone impassable, thousands of determined public sector strikers still resolved to rally across the county last Thursday.

Outside schools and hospitals, bus depots and municipal buildings, working people stood shoulder to shoulder with each another in one of the largest pickets for fair pay and improved civic services that the North has ever seen.

But, as well as the countless lines formed by those whose refrain was ‘enough is enough’, two mass rallies were also held, one in Omagh and the other in Cookstown.

I joined the former as the group grew from a few dozen to several hundred, speaking with some of the people who had braved the snow and sludge to be part of the march.

“We don’t want to be doing this,” explained a local primary school teacher, as the small crowd which had amassed at Omagh Park and Ride began to thicken.

“We would rather be teaching our pupils now, just like the nurses would rather be taking care of their patients.”

By 12.30pm, a diverse coalition of dissatisfied public servants were primed and ready to walk defiantly through the county town.

However, as though to illustrate the central tension that lies at the heart of any public sector strike, before the marchers could get moving, members of Northern Ireland Ambulance Service who were part of the strike received a category one emergency call.

Committed to a policy of ‘responding from the picket line’, the crew rushed to their vehicle, jumped in, sounded their sirens, and sped off, potentially to save a life.

“We have decided that we are still attending all ‘life and limb’ calls,” said another NIAS medic. “Ideally, this wouldn’t be happening and we would be responding to all calls, but that isn’t the position we – or anybody else here – find ourselves in at the minute.”

Though the atmosphere was friendly and familiar, the anger, frustration and sense of injustice which had brought the strikers together simmered close to the surface.

“It is a joke that it has come to this,” said a local pharmacist, as she walked alongside a gang of bus drivers, chatting about the chain of events that had led to this moment they had been forced to share. “These issues should never have been let go so far.”

As the small army rounded the bend at Campsie playing fields, passing cars sounded their horns in solidarity.

Coming to a stop at the courthouse steps, it seemed fitting that the speakers who addressed the strikers should have done so from the foot of such a great monument of justice. The righteousness of their cause seemed amplified by their backdrop.

Signs and placards called on both the DUP and Secretary of State to sort the mess out.

‘Fair pay for teachers and no pay for lazy MLAs,’ read one board.

‘GP appointments? Operations? Cost of living crisis? No Pay rise? “Suck it up,” says the DUP,’ claimed another.

As one by one the union representatives rallied their troops, the crowd responded with cheers and chants.

Raising their left hands in a trade union salute, they shouted, “Up the strikers!”

The overall message was resounding: Save our services and pay us fairly. If you don’t, you ain’t seen nothing yet!