N Ireland’s ‘biggest’ mass action

– Tens of thousands of public-sector workers in Northern Ireland walked off the job yesterday, in what one union boss said could be the biggest strike in the British province.

The mass strike – dubbed a “coordinated day of action” – was predicted to cause havoc for already crumbling public services.

It came with no end in sight to a protracted political crisis that has left Northern Ireland without devolved government for almost two years.

Around 16 trade unions representing teachers, civil servants, nurses and transport workers joined picket lines and rallies in what trades union chief Owen Reidy said was likely the “largest industrial dispute in the history of Northern Ireland”.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) estimated that 170 000 of the 220 000 public-sector union workers would stop work to demand the release of held-up funding for pay increases.

Six rallies took place across Belfast with another two in Londonderry, also known as Derry, and one in Enniskillen.

Several thousand attended the Belfast rally, with loud boos ringing out when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and UK Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris were mentioned.

The DUP, largest pro-UK party, withdrew from the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont in February 2022 because of post-Brexit trading rules it said undermined the province’s place in the wider UK.

Heaton-Harris said on Monday a £3.3 billion (about R79 billion) package offered to the parties last month – including £584 million earmarked for public-sector pay hikes – would be available on condition that the assembly restarts.

Schools were shut and transport services halted as several hundred service workers joined the strike.

The mass action – which is estimated could cost the economy more than £10 million – comes as the political stalemate in the region approaches a two-year milestone. –