Trade unionists told of collapse in real wages as shareholder profits and Executive bonuses trumped workers’ pay

Derry Trades Union Council (DTUC) recently hosted a meeting in the Junction Room of the Holywell Trust in Bishop Street in support of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ (ICTU) Workers Demand Better Campaign.

The campaign, which was launched at Stormont recently, is demanding better pay and conditions for workers, better welfare provision for workers who are unemployed, and better supports for households who are struggling to cope with the spiralling cost-of-living crisis.

Addressing the meeting DTUC Chair, Niall McCarroll said: “If this campaign is to be seen as a success we need to address the culture of putting shareholders’ profits and bonuses ahead of workers' rights and equality for all.”

Mr. McCarroll insisted that the ‘wealth which is created by workers must be shared equally with the workers’.

The Town Hall style meeting heard from Gerry Murphy of Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO), who provided a stark example of how real wages have collapsed over recent decades.

He spoke of how the take home pay of workers has been lagging far behind price index inflation and that this has left many workers struggling.

"I have in my hands payslips for one teacher, a senior teacher over a 17 year period. That teacher was earning - per month - in July 2005, £1473, and in March 2022 they were earning £2,356.

“That's an increase over that 17 year period of £883 - a per annum increase for that senior teacher of £51 per annum. Now, you all know, you don't need me to tell you what inflation has risen by over the same period,” said Mr. Murphy.

Dr. Lisa Wilson, a senior economist with Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI), spoke of how inflation is placing many families in crisis.

"Very suddenly the cost of energy went through the roof and it’s something that very few households or businesses can live without.

"Inflation had been building for some months coming out of the pandemic,” she observed.

Unison Regional Secretary Patricia McKeown said the position workers find themselves in is unacceptable in the third decade of the 21st century.

Said Ms. McKeown: "A priority for us will always be the absence of equality and human rights in the way that we should have them. Here, in this part of the 21st century, there is no excuse for their absence and the level of poverty and dispossession that exists in this society.

“If unions are about anything and they are going to succeed in any way there are going to have to put maximum attention on the people who are most dispossessed and the most disadvantaged and that's really and essential core part of this campaign.”

Trade unionists meet Low Pay Commission and call for £15 per hour living wage

Goretti Horgan, of DTUC, said the campaign was supporting the demand of the Trade Union Congress in Britain that benefits should be raised to about 80 per cent of the living wage.

“Now, if you think about it that would be about £260 a week for people who at present get £77 a week so it is a good demand.

"We have added that because we want to keep to the trade union demands but have ones that fit particularly for this city where so many people are dependent, including people who, of course, are in work, and are dependent on benefits.

"We know that about 30 per cent of the population here at the moment - of Universal Credit claimants - are in work and we expect that to grow given the wage rates here,” said Ms. Horgan.

Owen Reidy, the recently installed new ICTU General Secretary, said 'people power' was required in order to force politicians to meet their demands.

"I'm particularly happy that we are starting in Derry because I think you know all about struggle and you know all about the challenges that are facing your community when you have seen quite a lot of neglect in the north west in recent decades,” he said.

‘We are plagued with low wage levels, high unemployment’ - Derry & Strabane Colrs

The veteran socialist campaigner and journalist Eamonn McCann said: “If you look back over our history ask yourself a simple question: In what circumstances have large numbers of Catholic and Protestant working class people - in what circumstances have they come together to link arms in pursuit of a political ideal? It is always, always, in the context of the trade union movement.”

The Workers Demand Better campaign is built on the following five planks:

1. Government support and resources to households, (prioritising those on fixed incomes and low to middle incomes) to assist them when it comes to the cost of energy over the next number of months.

2. Along with pay improvements in each workplace, we need to see the state address the social wage.

3. Governments need to engage with the trade union movement and start implementing progressive policies that support workers and their families.

4. The trade union manifesto, No Going Back – A new deal towards a safe and secure future for all, has serious policies which must be advanced.

DTUC is urging people to attend a rally in support of these demands in Derry city centre on Saturday, November 26.

The rally will gather at 1.30pm in Guildhall Square and will march around the city centre from 2pm.

Shailesh Vara addresses dip in life expectancy for poorer Derry men