Ireland: 300,000 public service workers strike

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Up to 300,000 public service workers in Ireland struck November 24 against proposals by the Irish government to impose devastating spending cuts in the 2010 budget.

Teachers, lecturers, nurses, local authority workers, fire fighters, civil servants all supported the strike. Many schools and government offices are reported to have been picketed. Of the sections of workers involved, only those on emergency and flood relief duty worked normally. Even members of the police force, although prevented by law from striking, were encouraged to attend civilian pickets at police stations and to ignore routine tasks. Prison officers also struck.

The strike underscored the breadth of opposition to plans by the government and the financial aristocracy to take a sledgehammer to vital public services and living standards. Ballots in the run-up to the industrial action had shown overwhelming majorities in support of the strike. Within SIPTU, one of the main public service unions, for example, 85.6 percent of health service workers, 91.6 percent of fire fighters, 79 percent of tertiary education staff and 77 percent of civil servants voted to strike. Similar majorities were recorded in other public service unions, including Unite’s 6,000 public service workers.

Yesterday’s national strike follows a series of demonstrations and increasingly bitter industrial disputes. Last February, 120,000 workers demonstrated in Dublin against proposals then being implemented for a 7 percent public sector pay “levy”. Workers at Waterford Crystal, Boots, Coca Cola, Dublin docks and a number of other employers have struck against closures and layoffs. A one-day general strike planned for March 30 was cancelled at the last moment by the trade unions.

On November 6, demonstrations were held across Ireland. Some 70,000 marched in Dublin, around 15,000 turned out in Cork, 9,000 in Waterford and 6,000 in Galway. Thousands more gathered in Northern Ireland on the same day to protest similar cuts being imposed by the Northern Ireland Assembly and the British government. Demonstrations and rallies were held by the trade unions in Belfast, Derry, Omagh, Armagh, Ballymena, Magherafelt and Newry.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/irel-n25.shtml