People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
“Essential workers in Derry should be able to do their jobs without fear and intimidation. Everyone dependent on the vital services they provide should be able to access them.
People Before Profit stand in full solidarity with postal workers, bus drivers, health workers, fire fighters and their trade unions who have spoken out and taken action in response to hijackings across the city over recent days.
Unfortunately, workers were forced to withdraw vital services from parts of the city. For a return to work, they should be given assurances that there will be no repeat of what has occurred.
Workers, trade unions and working class communities across Derry are facing tremendous pressures. We need to do all we can to empower everyone in all our communities to challenge poverty, mass redundancies and the continued threat to public services. Instilling a sense of fear and intimidation among essential workers in the areas they work and live does nothing to empower ordinary people – it does the opposite.
We join the call for those responsible for the hijackings to reflect on the futility of their actions and to desist. We make the appeal to them to try another road to protest a legitimate grievance. The pandemic has put a spotlight on the great cleavage between elites and the rest of us. The emphasis now needs to be on building collective organisation that can mobilise mass resistance to defend essential workers and the most vulnerable.”
