SOUTH Belfast Socialist Party candidate Neil Moore believes enough hasn’t been done in the Executive to tackle a range of problems which are affecting ordinary people, from soaring energy bills to wages.

Unite the Union official Neil is currently involved in negotiations about pay and conditions in a range of sectors including transport, education and manufacturing. It's possible that a week of widespread industrial action could take place later this month.

“It could almost end up being a mini-general strike, particularly with the transport and education sectors," he said

A native of South Belfast, Neil has lived in both the Ormeau and Carryduff areas. He says the Socialist Party have a strong presence in this part of the city.

“We have a very strong branch in South Belfast so it was a natural place for us to stand," he said. "We are standing two candidates this election, myself in South Belfast and Amy Ferguson in Tyrone. We are putting down the marker of standing two trade unionists. We believe this will be a very sectarian election. In the context of the overall political landscape, with Sinn Féin looking to be the largest party and the battles between the unionist parties, we think the temperature of sectarianism will be dialled up and we’ve already seen examples of that happening.”

Neil said it's important that the parties at Stormont are challenged on their records.

“We want to put down an important marker for the workers' movement and for young activists that there must be a left-wing cross-community socialist challenge to the Executive parties in Stormont, who have acted disgracefully to workers. We saw this recently with Alliance voting down the Trade Union Freedom Bill and the Green Party not showing up.

“Stormont has left the workers' voices out. I used to be a hospitality worker, and the current pandemic left the sector in very bad shape. Attention was paid to business owners in that sector, but the voices of workers who help run that sector fell on deaf ears. We want to challenge the pro-big business, pro-profit, anti-worker actions of the Assembly.”

Neil also promised that he would not be taking his full salary if elected and would instead take an average worker's wage while demanding pay increases for all workers across the board.

“If elected I will be taking the average wage of a young worker in South Belfast and the rest will be donated back into community projects and workers who are struggling. Council workers and NHS workers have received a miserable pay increase, whilst last week Stormont awarded itself a £500 pay increase with a clear majority and it’s tone-deaf to what ordinary workers are having to face.

“The cost-of-living has gone through the roof, with inflation sitting around 8.2 per cent. Bills have gone through the roof, and there have been efforts from bosses to keep wages down. The answer to that is workers need to get organised so we can increase wages. Glen Dimplex in November last year took strike action and secured a 13.5 per cent pay increase and we need to see more of that because big businesses are posting record profits.

"We need more than these Martin Lewis-style money management tips to help with the cost-of-living. A small grant here or a loan against your energy bills there won't work, we need more action and wage increases, for the minimum wage to be at least £15 per hour, and for restrictions on workers organising to be lifted. And we need to see price caps on energy bills and rent. Rent controls are heavily linked to being able to control inflation and that’s a step the new Executive needs to take.”

The Socialist Party also plans to address public housing and rent controls, which Neil argues will benefit workers and stop people being priced out through the conversion of homes into apartments.

“Private landlordism is a huge issue in South Belfast, rent increases across Northern Ireland for the last year have been around five per cent, but in South Belfast we have seen increases of 25 to 30 per cent. We’re seeing property speculation and landlords converting homes into apartments for Airbnbs. There is also a lack of public housing. There are plenty of empty properties and space, but it isn’t being utilised for housing.”

The Socialist Party candidate says Stormont has failed to do what's required to tackle the climate emergency. And on the lack of a strategy for tackling gender violence he said: “There is a pandemic of gender violence. We’ve seen a sharp increase in spiking and sexual assaults against women and non-binary people. There have been attacks on women in the Holyland, Ormeau Park and Lisburn Road and that needs to be brought up and dealt with because Stormont still has no strategy to deal with violence against women.”

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