Teachers and civil servants take part in massive strike

Last week saw a day of mass strike action across Tyrone and the rest of the North with thousands of teachers and civil servants taking to the streets to voice their anger and demand better pay and conditions.

In Strabane, numerous picket lines were in operation at locations across the town, including St Mary’s Primary School, Holy Cross College, Knockavoe and the Social Security offices on the Urney Road.

Teaching union representatives said they were not just striking due to pay, but were also taking industrial action due to mass cuts to school budgets. Last month, the North’s Department of Education (DE) slashed a number of initiatives, including the School Holiday Food Grants scheme and the ‘Healthy Happy Minds’ counselling programme.

Concerned teachers claim they’re now being asked to do the same job but with less pay and worse resources.

Speaking at the picket line outside Sacred Heart College in Omagh yesterday, president of the INTO union and Sion Mills PS principal Dorothy McGinley said teachers felt they had no other choice but to strike.

“Our pay as been stagnating for the last 12 years and they’re slashing our educational resources right across the network of education. We feel very aggrieved about it.

“School teachers are at the very end of the line and we can’t take anymore.”

Local teachers also travelled to Belfast to take part in a mass rally outside City Hall, during which members of all five teaching unions joined together to demand action from the Department of Education.

Also striking were Department for Infrastructure (DfI) staff who picketed outside the Strabane Section office on the Derry Road.

Unite union general secretary, Sharon Graham, expressed her union’s support for strike action.

She said, “The offer of a bare £552 extra a year is a slap in the face for those responsible for the maintenance of vital public services and infrastructure. That’s pennies more than ten pounds a week and will do nothing for workers feeling the impact of the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.”

The general secretary added, “The employers need to recognise that this is just a start. These workers are determined to win a proper and respectful pay increase. They do so in the full knowledge that this union stands full square behind them.”