Set head: Health Workers Stage Walkout
By Anthony Neeson
Health and Social care workers across Northern Ireland have taken part in a 24-hour strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Monday’s walk-out was the first strike in the health service since 2019.
Workers from the largest unions in the North took part including Unison, NIPSA, and GMB. Health workers were told that they would be receiving a 2022-23 pay award of £1,400 however Unison’s regional secretary has said “it’s not enough”.
Unison’s Regional Secretary, Patricia McKeown said the union is prepared to negotiate and is awaiting the Secretary of State to open talks.
“Forming pickets, assembling around Christmas trees in hospital grounds and singing on the picket lines in sub-zero temperatures, our members are making the point that they don't just threaten strike action against an unacceptable pay offer – they take it,” she said.
“Unison stands ready to negotiate. In the absence of a devolved government, we wait to see if the Secretary of State cares enough about Northern Ireland health workers and patients to open talks.”
Speaking at a picket line in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Sinn Féin’s vice-President Michelle O’Neill said the UK government needed to “get real” with negotiations to end the dispute.
“They need to get around the table and they need to bring forward a deal that actually meets the needs of the workers,” she said.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll joined health workers on the picket line in Belfast.
“Health workers have my full support in their fight for fair pay and safe staffing,” he said.
“Their willingness to strike in sub-zero conditions proves their dedication to the health service and to their patients.
“Our health service is at breaking point thanks to years of underfunding. Patients are being put at risk and more workers are opting to leave the health service. We cannot recruit and retain NHS staff with poverty wages.
“The Tories and their counterparts in Stormont were content to offer health workers a real terms pay cut."
He concluded: “The Secretary of State must urgently intervene to give these workers a proper pay rise in the absence of an Executive.”
