Water strike – battle against austerity cuts

Boiling pots of snow over the burner. Trekking to the nearest river to clean clothes and cook. Sending children home from school.

 
These were some of the scenes in parts of Northern Ireland in the past week, as thousands of homes faced disruption to water supplies during an NI Water dispute that reached breaking point last week.

 
Although the media was quick to highlight the extreme measures some were taking to access water during these temporary periods of disruption, the extreme measures NI Water management had taken against their workers in an assault on pensions was not deemed to be as newsworthy.

 
That’s because most people don’t know that utility workers are among the lowest paid anywhere in the UK, with many earning less than £10 per hour.

 
“This is considerably lower than would be paid in the private sector for fully qualified professionals,” argued Unite industrial officer Joanne McWilliams.

 
“All the work they do is outside, so you’re out in the cold constantly,” McWilliams explained, saying that most people don’t realise how tough water utility workers’ jobs actually are. “They’re treating waste water and dirty water, and they’re extremely understaffed so they’re constantly working overtime.”

 
Step too far

 
For workers already paid so little for their role in safely providing life’s most essential resource, massive changes to their pension scheme were a step too far.

 
In an effort to cut costs to the bone, NI Water demanded its workers contribute more to their pension scheme, but at a rate that would amount to approximately £100 a month – an outrageous sum, given the workers had already been struggling on low pay.

 
Unite, joined by unions GMB and NIPSA, took action short of a strike just before Christmas to fight these changes that would force many of their members to choose between heating and eating in the midst of a bitterly cold winter.

 
More than 1,000 workers strong joined together in a working-to-rule action, which included the withdrawal of on-call, standby and overtime.

 
McWilliams noted that workers felt they had no other option in the run up to Christmas, as management continued in their unwillingness to negotiate.

 
“All three unions are willing to continue negotiations right up to and beyond December 22 in order to attempt to find a solution and avoid disruption to communities,” McWilliams said at the time.

 
In a gesture of goodwill, workers committed to providing emergency cover in an attempt to avoid disruption to water supplies.

They maintained this commitment throughout the holiday season and responded to a number of critical incidents outside their working hours.

 
But, McWilliams noted, “There were a number of instances where this gesture of goodwill was abused by management.”

 
Dispute intensifies

 
Last Monday (January 12), Unite and participating unions announced that they would withdraw emergency cover, a regretful situation that McWilliams said “resulted from management intransigence.”

 
The consequences of this intransigence fell squarely on the shoulders of the tens of thousands of households which would go without water.

 
“Management was warned about possible industrial action since July,” Williams said. “They cannot tell the public that this out of their hands, that they didn’t know. We had given them every opportunity possible to avoid the action and the water supply disruptions.

 
“It’s also important to remember that this was not a strike,” she added. “Our members took action by working only according to what was in their contracts. We tried our best not to harm the public in any way.

 
“The fact that disruptions to the water supply were so widespread and so severe, even with every worker coming to work every day, just shows how overstretched water utility workers really are.”

 
As parts of Northern Ireland went without water, Unite subsequently sought talks with the finance minister Simon Hamilton to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible to avoid further disruptions.

 
Although NI Water told the press it had already put forward three formal proposals, none of them addressed the situation at the centre of the dispute – that workers would be forced to bear the brunt of attacks on their pay and pensions.

 
“Every proposal they put forward had too many strings attached,” McWilliams explained. “For every concession they made, there was an associated cost, and that cost was too high for our members.”

 
Public sector attacked

 
The NI Water dispute didn’t happen in a vacuum – it’s part of a wider story of government austerity cuts.

 
Under the current government’s austerity regime, public sector workers are being hit hardest.

 
“This government is taking everything backwards for public sector workers – pay, terms and conditions, pensions, you name it,” said McWilliams.

 
This has become doubly true for workers in Northern Ireland following the Stormont House Agreement reached over Christmas, which seeks to unleash the full impact of austerity in a part of the country that’s already struggling.

 
Over the past decade, the number employed by the public sector in Northern Ireland has dropped dramatically – from almost 40 per cent of the workforce in 1992 to less than 30 per cent today. And the cuts will only continue, as it was announced earlier this week that 20,000 public sector jobs in Northern Ireland will be slashed over the next four years.

 
“The latest budget cuts are only the start,” warned McWilliams. “And what most people might not realise is that’s it’s not only a problem for the employees. Public services are going to be so overstretched that the public will be affected as well.

 
“Industrial action in individual disputes can be effective, but we’ve got to put a stop to austerity to keep these attacks from happening to all workers. It’s time we’ve said enough is enough.”