{"id":2792,"date":"2015-01-22T12:06:47","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T12:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2792"},"modified":"2015-01-22T16:40:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T16:40:53","slug":"water-strike-battle-austerity-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2792","title":{"rendered":"Water strike \u00e2\u20ac\u201c battle against austerity cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Boiling pots of snow over the burner. Trekking to the nearest river to clean clothes and cook. Sending children home from school.<\/p>\n

 
\nThese 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that utility workers are among the lowest paid anywhere in the UK, with many earning less than \u00c2\u014110 per hour.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is considerably lower than would be paid in the private sector for fully qualified professionals,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 argued Unite industrial officer Joanne McWilliams.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll the work they do is outside, so you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out in the cold constantly,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McWilliams explained, saying that most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise how tough water utility workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 jobs actually are. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re treating waste water and dirty water, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re extremely understaffed so they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re constantly working overtime.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nStep too far<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nFor workers already paid so little for their role in safely providing life\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most essential resource, massive changes to their pension scheme were a step too far.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn 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 \u00c2\u0141100 a month \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an outrageous sum, given the workers had already been struggling on low pay.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite, 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nMore than 1,000 workers strong joined together in a working-to-rule action, which included the withdrawal of on-call, standby and overtime.<\/p>\n

 
\nMcWilliams noted that workers felt they had no other option in the run up to Christmas, as management continued in their unwillingness to negotiate.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McWilliams said at the time.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn a gesture of goodwill, workers committed to providing emergency cover in an attempt to avoid disruption to water supplies.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They maintained this commitment throughout the holiday season and responded to a number of critical incidents outside their working hours.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut, McWilliams noted, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere were a number of instances where this gesture of goodwill was abused by management.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nDispute intensifies<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nLast Monday (January 12), Unite and participating unions announced that they would withdraw emergency cover, a regretful situation that McWilliams said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bresulted from management intransigence.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe consequences of this intransigence fell squarely on the shoulders of the tens of thousands of households which would go without water.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bManagement was warned about possible industrial action since July,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey cannot tell the public that this out of their hands, that they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. We had given them every opportunity possible to avoid the action and the water supply disruptions.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also important to remember that this was not a strike,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur 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.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAs 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that workers would be forced to bear the brunt of attacks on their pay and pensions.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEvery proposal they put forward had too many strings attached,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McWilliams explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor every concession they made, there was an associated cost, and that cost was too high for our members.”<\/p>\n

 
\nPublic sector attacked<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe NI Water dispute didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen in a vacuum \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of a wider story of government austerity cuts.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnder the current government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity regime, public sector workers are being hit hardest.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis government is taking everything backwards for public sector workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pay, terms and conditions, pensions, you name it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said McWilliams.<\/p>\n

 
\nThis 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already struggling.<\/p>\n

 
\nOver the past decade, the number employed by the public sector in Northern Ireland has dropped dramatically \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe latest budget cuts are only the start,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 warned McWilliams. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd what most people might not realise is that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not only a problem for the employees. Public services are going to be so overstretched that the public will be affected as well.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIndustrial action in individual disputes can be effective, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to put a stop to austerity to keep these attacks from happening to all workers. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve said enough is enough.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,219,132],"wps_subtitle":"The month-long NI Water dispute may end soon \u00e2\u20ac\u201c UNITElive explores how workers took a stand for justice","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2805,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions\/2805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}