DERRY LAUNCH OF WORKERS DEMAND BETTER CAMPAIGN
Campaign backed by all NI trade unions to tackle the cost-of-living crisis has first of series of ‘town hall’ meetings in Derry.
Derry Trades Union Council (DTUC) and NIC-ICTU will host a public meeting in Derry about the Workers Demand Better campaign at 7pm, Wednesday 9 December, in the Holywell Trust, Bishop Street.
NIC-ICTU is the umbrella body of unions who represent over 200,000 working people across Northern Ireland, and is unveiling a detailed and realistic strategy to tackle the cost-of-living crisis for working people and their communities across Northern Ireland.
Speaking ahead of the meeting next Wednesday, ICTU General Secretary Owen Reidy said
This new campaign is in response to the cost-of-living crisis which is incredibly challenging for workers and their families as we face into winter. The campaign was launched at Stormont in October to send all MLAs the message that working people and their families need serious political solutions to challenging economic problems.
The trade union movement intends to take our message to the public with a series of ‘town hall’ meetings in communities across Northern Ireland, the first of which is in Derry’s Holywell Trust.
This NI-wide campaign will benefit from the input, support and local roots of our network of Trades Union Councils, and we are always delighted to work with the dedicated activists of Derry Trades Union Council.
The launch event will feature trade union leaders, local activists from DTUC and the expertise of Dr Lisa Wilson, labour market economist with the widely respected think-tank, the Nevin Economic Research Institute.
Also speaking ahead of the event, Niall McCarroll, DTUC chairperson said
In organising this first Town Hall meeting of the NIC ICTU led Workers Demand Better Campaign, Derry Trades Union Council are reaching out in partnership with the people of Derry and the North West - providing an opportunity for local people to put before the NIC ICTU their demands for this campaign, what matters to them and what they want to see delivered through this organising campaign.
We are right in the middle of a Cost of Living Crisis were economic inequality, greed, record corporate profits and falling living standards are unacceptable key components.
The Workers Demand Better Campaign can deliver the real change everyone wants - through grassroots trade union organising bringing a rebalancing of power and wealth.
Numbers are limited for this event so please book your place by going on the Derry Trades Union Council Facebook page and follow the RSVP information on the event poster.
The event will also be addressed by ICTU General Secretary Owen Reidy, who will announce that
The NIC-ICTU intends to mobilise workers across Northern Ireland and lead a progressive movement that demands better for workers after a decade of pay stagnation.
Emerging from Covid 19 workers and their families expected a new approach to work and rewarding those who work. Many of the workers who were lauded as ‘essential’ during covid are now being treated with contempt and have had enough. Working people are not prepared to see their pay fall further behind, hence the unprecedented industrial action we will see across Northern Ireland in the coming period.
We intend to engage with workers and communities across Northern Ireland, lobby politicians both here and at Westminster, hold protests and rallies at strategic times and demand that we see stronger better workers’ rights, where unions can collectively bargain with employers and can make the irresistible case for a better social wage, such as better access to affordable childcare, transport and other services.
Speakers will include:
- Owen Reidy (ICTU General Secretary)
- Gerry Murphy (NIC ICTU & INTO)
- Patricia McKeown (UNISON & NIC ICTU)
- Dr Lisa Wilson (NERI)
- Niall McCarroll (DTUC)
The evening will be chaired by Dr Goretti Horgan (DTUC)
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
The key campaign messages for politicians and the public were agreed with the full engagement of unions representing workers in the private and public sectors and include:
- Government support and resources to households, (prioritising those on fixed incomes and low to middle incomes) to assist them when it comes to the cost of energy over the next number of months.
- Along with pay improvements in each workplace, we need to see the state address the social wage.
- Governments need to engage with the trade union movement and start implementing progressive policies that support workers and their families. The trade union manifesto, No Going Back – A new deal towards a safe and secure future for all, has serious policies which must be advanced.
- A robust NI Employment Bill that promotes workers’ rights and stronger collective bargaining, leading to better pay, which includes key elements of the recent EU Directive on an Adequate Minimum Wage, as a centrepiece in any Programme for Government of the NI Executive.
