Large turnout at Derry strike rally hears cuts are ‘amputations’ to ‘already bleeding system’

Hundreds of people attended the Northern Ireland Committee (NIC) – Irish Congress of Trade Union’s (ICTU) Workers Demand Better Campaign demonstration for better pay and conditions for education and health workers on Tuesday.

Janice Mullan, a Derry-based teacher, who is honorary secretary of the Ulster Teachers' Union, said Tuesday’s half-day strike by teaching unions was not just about lagging real wages for teachers but also underinvestment in the school system.

"What has happened to our schools when parents and teachers are already expected to fund food, pens, pencils, books, the list goes on. My late father, like all his classmates, had to take a piece of turf every day to his rural primary school in Glenconway just outside Dungiven. Are we forced back a hundred years?” she asked.

Striking teachers from the NASUWT, Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), National Education Union (NEU) and UTU were joined by health workers from Unison, NIPSA, UNITE and the GMB union, who were involved in their own 24 hour stoppage.

Ms. Mullan claimed that millions of pounds had been taken out of education budgets in what have been characterised as ‘necessary cuts’.

"There is no money, they tell us. Think of the children, they tell us. Well, we are telling you, enough, enough, enough. These are not minor cuts.

"These are amputations to an already bleeding education system. Of course, there is money. You know it and we certainly know it. We teachers are fighting for our children’s future and for our own.”

Siobhán McElhinney, Northern Chairperson of INTO, told the large attendance how the real value of teachers' salaries has ‘declined by close to 25 per cent in the past decade yet the work load has increased’.

"We wonder why we cannot recruit to the profession? The answer is simple: teachers are leaving here because of poor pay and conditions.

"Our colleagues teaching a few miles away in Donegal are on a lot more than us. Why are we not earning that too? Our young teachers are coming out of university £40,000 in debt. We are not paying a fair wage so they are having to go elsewhere.”

Ms. McElhinney claimed that due to the underfunding of our education system there is ‘less spent per head on a child than in other parts of the UK’.

"Are our kids not as important? Our students deserve to be treated as equal. Far too long we have been treated as second class citizens. Are the kids in this city not worth the same as the students in Derby and Dundee? Teachers are propping up the system by buying resources for classes out of their own purses and wallets.”

Chris Kerrigan, a local teacher and member of the NASUWT, said he was ‘angry at the historic erosion of our pay and living standards as well as the chronic devaluation of our profession’.

“The average teacher on an UPS 3 [Upper Pay Scale] pay scale has seen a significant pay cut in real terms since 2010 resulting in losing out on £70,064 on average since 2010. That is chronically bad. This will have an adverse effect on pension contributions where teachers will have to pay more, to work for longer and receive less at retirement age. Enough is enough,” he declared.

Mark Langhammer, Regional Secretary of the NEU, said he does not believe the British Government when it claims there is no money for workers’ pay demands.

He pointed to billions spent on COVID-19, on furlough, on defence budgets and military armaments, and on taxes foregone on wealth and energy profits.

“The United Kingdom is a currency creating county. It can simply instruct the Bank of England to put more noughts onto the ledger. That is exactly how it paid for COVID-19.

"That's exactly how it paid for furlough and that's exactly how it pays for the never-ending wars of choice, billions, untold billions spent in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Syria, in Libya, in the Yemen, and now in the Ukraine,” he stated.

He added: “We need to look after our working people first, before wars, before anything: working people first. The money is there. It comes down to political choice.”

Derry health workers stage pickets: ‘How much more cost of living crisis can we endure?’

Alan Philson, a health worker and member of Unison, left the picket line to show solidarity with the teachers.

He said: “The NHS and the education sector are in a terrible state due to the lack of support and investment from this Tory government who would rather privatise everything.

"Our dispute is not just about pay but staffing too. With too few health workers in health and social care we can no longer maintain safe and deliver quality patient care.”

Mr. Philson paid tribute to the education workers assembled in Guildhall Square: “Without our teachers we wouldn't have social workers, we wouldn’t have occupational therapists, we wouldn’t have doctors, we wouldn't have ambulance workers and we wouldn’t have nurses.”

Brenda Stevenson, on behalf of Unite, said: “It is a sad indictment in the city of civil rights that we have health professionals, teachers and classroom assistants at foodbanks. What does that say about society nowadays?”

The Mayor of Derry and Strabane, Sandra Duffy, backed the workers.

She said: “Workers and families have borne the brunt of the income crisis while the Tory government in Westminster has topped up the bankers' bonuses and refused to tax the scandalous profits that are being made by the energy giants off the back of customers.

"In this context workers and trade unionists have a right to demand better. That means better funding for the NHS and public services so that departments can do the right thing and offer workers a decent pay rise.”

487 outpatient appointments among cancellations and closures on Tuesday