Over 200 delegates and guests heard speeches and debated motions on fair pay, ‘Good Jobs’, supporting a comprehensive NI Employment Bill and challenging racism in the streets and violence against women and girls everywhere.
The conference was addressed by First Minister Michelle O’Neill who said that the NI Executive wished to see a ‘partnership’ develop with the trade union movement. She also praised the human rights campaigning of unions, saying that ‘not only are you champions for your members in workplaces, but champions of democracy also.”
Pam Cameron, junior minister at The Executive Office, stated that
Trade Unions are valued by all parties on the NI Executive, and acknowledged that unions had not been properly represented on public bodies for a number of years and that this would be addressed after the appointment of a new Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Leaving the Guildhall, the First Minister was lobbied by Unison health workers seeking adequate funding for a equal level of pay with their equivalents in GB. Unison spokesperson Anne Speed said
First Minister Michelle O Neill told the conference that pay for public sector workers is a responsibility for the full Executive .
Those words will guide our upcoming negotiations with Health Minister Nesbitt. We will engage but the agenda has to be about how the funding can be delivered not on how we might accept less than the full implementation of the recommended increase.
Separately teachers’ unions issued a joint statement giving given notice to the Minister of Education Paul Givan of their intent to ballot for industrial action in relation to the failure of Management Side to make a satisfactory pay offer for 2024-25. The unions are the NASUWT, INTO and UTU.
Justin McCamphill NASUWT National Official said
Inflation has not gone away. The significant increase in prices, for food and energy in particular are hitting teachers hard. When this is combined with high interest rates and ever increasing rents, teachers cannot make ends meet.
Teachers in Northern Ireland have watched since the summer as their counterparts in the rest of the UK have received significant pay increases for this academic year and are telling us that they are fed up with being left behind.
This situation has forced teachers into a position where they are left with no choice but to put the Minister on notice that they will take industrial action if a significant pay offer is not made forthwith.
Mark McTaggart, Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO), said
It would appear that the minister is content to allow the education system to sleepwalk into a crisis of recruitment and retention of teachers, and to allow talented teachers to be trained for export. Teachers across the north are once again the least well paid across these islands.
Teachers have a right to receive a salary that truly reflects their value to society. The continued failure by those who hold the purse strings to provide this has the potential to have a devastating effect on the life chances of the children and young people in their care.
Jacquie White, Ulster Teachers Union (UTU) and Chair of NITC, said
It is disheartening to say the least for our teaching workforce to find themselves once again as the lowest paid members of the profession across these islands. Despite promises from our politicians and decision makers to ensure our teachers are equally valued the marked lack of progress and commitment here is causing grave concern.
We call on the Minister to address this issue as a matter of priority, restore the pay to fair and equitable levels, and allow us to move forward.
It was also reported that a pay increase of more than 3% for NI civil servants does not appear affordable, the Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald said. her preference would be to make an award in excess of 3%, but she said the current state of the Executive’s finances would not make that possible.
In response, NIPSA General Secretary Carmel Gates said
Civil Servants will fight rather than accept anything less than was given to colleagues across the water. NIPSA members will not be left behind
In his speech to the conference ICTU Assistant General Secretary paid tribute to the union members who took unprecedented strike action over the past two years, culminating in 170,000 public sector workers going on strike on 18 January.
Your decision, to withdraw your labour on that single day, demonstrated that public servants are the backbone of the economy. That the services you provide are essential for every person and that the state can’t function without you
No bus drivers. No classroom assistants. No social workers. No physios. No trains. No radiographers. No school meals. No vets. No civil servants to assist the public.
He argued that the next step for unions would be to lobby and campaign for new NI employment legislation,
in your workplaces and communities, to convince not only trade unionists that this legislation is overdue and needed, but that it’s fair implementation will be also be as good for managers and principals and board members.
There is no contradiction between fairness, decency and a more efficient and productive workplace.
There is nothing in the improvements we wish to see that is not already common in the best workplaces, and especially in those countries we are encouraged to think of as competitors. Not all races have to be to the bottom. What is good enough for the most productive workers in western Europe is good enough for those you represent too.
Another Trade Union leader who addressed conference was TUC GS Paul Nowak, who praised the determination of union activists in NI over the past two years.
Nowak also talked about the coming improvements in employment law in both GB and NI.
The employment rights bill is a huge step forward, a massive victory for years of union campaigning. There is still a lot for us to do to make sure that there are no loopholes, that we get the details right. But this is legislation that will be a game changer for millions of workers.
Now the crucial thing is we need to use that new legislation in Britain and in Northern Ireland now as a springboard to build our own movement making the right most of rights for unions to access the workplaces, to recruit more members, win recognition campaigns, extend collective bargaining coverage. So we take unions into every workplace, every industry and every sector. That's how we build a trade union movement that can win for working people, that can challenge the far right and take on issues like sexual harassment in our workplaces and indeed, in our own movements.
And we need to go after every single employer, every business where workers want union representation. So let's conference, put Amazon and every other anti union employer, anti worker boss, on notice. You will no longer be able to get away with paid poverty wages. You weren't able to get away with forcing people into work when they're sick. You weren't able to be able to get away with fine re hire. Our movement is coming for you. Our movement is going to organize it, and our movement is going to win justice for working people
The motions discussed are in the conference report, which can be read here
https://www.ictuni.org/publications/nic-ictu-bdc-2024-report-and-agenda
