People Before Profit Cllr Shaun Harkin said,
“Council and many other essential workers striking this week in Derry and across the North for a fair pay rise deserve our full solidarity.
The decision to take industrial action isn’t reached lightly. There will be a serious disruption to vital everyday services that we all depend on.
Workers have been treated with contempt by Westminster and Stormont. We’re in a cost of living crisis and many workers are struggling to pay their bills.
Workers are being forced to strike because their demands for a fair pay rise have been ignored.
Let’s not allow the political establishment to demonise workers as greedy or selfish. The problem is the political establishment that facilitates corporations to treat workers as P&O Ferries owners has done – while workers endured years of pay cuts.
MLAs are getting a £500 pay rise in April. MPs are grabbing a £2200 pay rise in April. Big corporations have been sucking in record profits. Elites and the politically connected have grabbed government handout after handout while the least well-off are impoverished by energy costs.
People power action is the only way we will win the change workers and all our communities need. Now’s the time for unity and solidarity.”
