Strike set to hit area

Striking union members will be staging a demonstration at 10.30am at the Bandstand, Broadway on Wednesday as part of the UK-wide national strike in the public sector.

Unison NEELB Branch will be manning pickets at various schools throughout the area and at County Hall before moving to Broadway.

Members have called this strike to oppose changes by the government to pensions for public sector workers, and spending cuts.

No buses or trains will operate in Ballymena or across Northern Ireland as members of the Unite Union employed by Translink, voted last week to join the strike. Translink is awaiting information from the Education and Library Boards to learn their needs for the day and will discuss options for school transport.

Parents and guardians are advised that the principal of their child’s school should notify them in advance of any impact of industrial action planned.

Representing Ballymena & District Trades Council, Sean Smyth, said: “A typical public sector worker would have to work almost three lifetimes to get a pension like some of these ministers who are attacking our public services. And it doesn’t include all the other lucrative business arrangements and inherited wealth many of them enjoy.”

“Ballymena Trades Council supports good pensions for all workers including MPs and MLAs, what we don’t support is a cabinet of millionaires attacking the very modest pensions of the men and women who care for our sick, teach our children and keep our streets safe.”

“It’s another example of how out-of-touch the government and the Northern Ireland Assembly is. Ministers, MPs and MLAs, who can retire on tens of thousands a year, are slashing the pensions of workers who stand to get a few thousand a year and then have the nerve to call them gold-plated.”