A 48-hour rail strike in the North scheduled for Friday and Saturday, December 15th and 16th, along with further action currently planned for Friday of next week, December 22nd, is set to hit commuters and cross-Border shoppers during the busy Christmas period.
At present, train services between Dundalk and Belfast will not be operating due to the industrial action by staff at the North’s rail service provider, Translink, Irish Rail has said.
Most of the roughly 10, mainly Enterprise, scheduled services in each direction on each day will operate only between Dublin and Dundalk but a number have also been cancelled entirely. Details are available at irishrail.ie.
The latest strikes are part of an ongoing campaign by the members of Unite, Siptu and the GMB working for the company who say they face real terms pay cuts of around 11 per cent due to the company’s failure to offer a pay increase of any sort.
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Translink says it wants to engage in talks on an increase but has no budget to do so as it was not provided with the additional funding required by the North’s Department for Infrastructure.
Siptu Regional organiser Niall McNally said the strike was being forced on the staff involved by the failure to provide cost of living pay increases. He said last week’s action had contributed to movement by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris on funding for the Assembly but that the issue of pay for public sector workers had to be specifically addressed.
“The secretary of state has shown he can move so let’s see him provide the funding needed for Translink to both improve our public transport services and deliver a cost of living increase for workers,” he said.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham described the failure to address the cost of living issue with pay increases was “completely unacceptable”.
Belfast Chamber president Gavin Annon said “the strike is a real body blow for our city centre – particularly members from retail and hospitality sectors who rely on a buoyant Christmas period. Without an available and affordable route, people will stay at home.
“We appreciate the cost of living pressures leading to these strikes, however. The longer we are without a functioning executive in place to deal with these matters the more devastating it will be for our city.”
The strikes will also affect those intending to travel to Newry from south of the Border in order to do Christmas shopping. Similarly retailers in Dublin are likely to be impacted by reduced traffic from the North.
Meanwhile, a number of public sector groups have announced their intention to strike on January 18th. On Thursday morning, the Society of Radiographers became the latest representative group to say its members would join in the action if progress is not made on the issue of pay.
The organisation says radiographers in Northern Ireland are paid 12 per cent less than colleagues in Scotland while the starting pay for the job in England is £1,200 higher.
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