PUBLIC transport workers will bring all bus and rail services across Belfast to a standstill on Friday in the latest day of strike action over pay.
Members of Unite, GMB and SIPTU employed by Translink will hold a further 24-hour strike action commencing on a staggered basis from 00.01am. The strike follows a two-day stoppage last week and will bring all bus and rail services to a standstill.
Unions were informed that Translink could only offer a pay freeze because of the budget imposed on the Department for Infrastructure by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is completely unacceptable that public transport workers are being denied a pay increase during the worst cost of living crisis in generations."
GMB regional organiser Peter Macklin said: “Chris Heaton-Harris is cruelly dangling funding for a pay increase in front of public sector workers but is linking the release of funds to progress in the political talks.
"He is seeking to politicise the issue of public sector pay and the proper funding of public sector services. Workers face an 11 per cent real-terms pay cut, that is not something that should be leveraged in negotiations or made a divisive issue.
"Adequate funding for public transport and for a cost-of-living increase for workers is something that must be provided by right.”
SIPTU Regional Organiser Niall McNally said: “Chris Heaton-Harris is consciously making public sector workers and funding for public services a hostage to fortune. Indeed, the weaponising of public sector funding and public sector workers’ pay in this way amounts to a divide and conquer strategy to advance the Secretary of State’s political agenda."
