Trades Council chair Niall McCarroll urges solidarity with striking Derry workers

He was speaking as hundreds of council, education and housing workers commenced a week of industrial action over pay on Monday.

"The time has come for workers to seize influence and power. The current economic situation and a society-wide malaise means we must enforce our demands.

"Demands which include pay awards that are meaningful, respectful and above inflation, pension protections, an end to casualisation, demands which also incorporate the need for changes in how the political system views working class communities.

"Poverty, hunger and marginalisation must be brought to an end.

"The current cost of living crisis and falling living standards means that a reckoning must be had between ordinary people and the establishment," said Mr. McCarroll.

Mr. McCarroll said education welfare officers in NIPSA, Magee University staff in the UCU and Council Workers in UNITE will gather at a UCU picket line at Magee for 11am on Wednesday before making their way to the Council offices on the Strand Road for a solidarity demonstration.

"Through their combined memberships, all three trade unions have shown they are willing to take the courageous act of a strike, to win a better deal and a better life.

"Unionised workers can be the difference between working class people returning to a position of power and delivering a real levelling-up of the fruits of labour and production.

"Derry Trades Union Council would like to reach out to members of the public asking that they show solidarity with these workers on strike, together we all want a better future for each other," said Mr. McCarroll.

Politicians express solidarity with Derry workers striking for improved pay