Sir Jeffrey Donaldson intervenes in Union strike as major disruption continues

Industrial action is continuing in the district until the result of a ballot on a revised pay offer is revealed on October 28.

Major disruption has been caused in all areas of the local authority with the impact of uncollected rubbish clearly visible on the streets since the strike began in early September.

Senior Unite representative, Nigel Gregg spoke to the local democracy service after he said the Lagan Valley MP had contacted him to help resolve the ongoing dispute.

Mr Gregg said: “The reason why we are still out here today is because the members who are out across the district on picket lines, feel the offer that has been put out for ballot, which will be considered, falls short of what they believe should a reasonable offer needed to be made to resolve this dispute.

“We are encouraged this morning (Oct 6) with the level of input from some of our elected representatives and indeed our MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson who has been on the telephone with me.

“He said that he had been in contact with our chief executive (David Burns of LCCC) in an effort to try and break the current impasse. We are hopeful that this leads to some kind of meaningful negotiation to try and resolve the matter.

“We are very keen to resolve the matter and we believe the matter can be resolved very quickly. We understand the frustration of our residents. We do not wish to prolong the frustration for them, but there is a lot of ambiguity out there with regards to what it is that the union members are looking for.

“To clarify, council workers are amongst some of the lowest paid in the public sector, and the bin men who are so precious to the residents in emptying their bins, currently have an hourly rate of £10.60 per hour, not the £15, £16, £17 that has been quoted by some.

“What we are looking is to uplift that to something that is a little bit more reasonable, given the current cost of living crisis we find our selves in and that is all.

“We are not looking for tens of thousands of pounds, we are just simply looking for a reasonable amount to be given to these workers for the excellent service they provide to our residents.”

The DUP press office was contacted for a response, but at the time of publishing had not commented on the matter. However, sources within the party have expressed their “surprise” at the intervention by the political leader between the “management and staff”.

A range of people in Lisburn, including pensioners and working residents, have conveyed their support for the unions, though some wanted the employees to call an end to the strike.

Mother of one, Sharon Heasly, 52, said: “They should go back to work when there is an offer already on the table. I have had to go to the council dump a number of times, but that’s only because I have a trailer.

“There are many other people who are not able to and have to just watch the rubbish piling up in their homes.”

Pensioner, John Moore, 74, a former rail road worker said: “I understand why they are all out on strike and they all work very hard. I hope it will be over very soon and the workers get a better offer than what is there at the moment.”

Meanwhile, Downshire East councillor, Alex Swan (UUP) expressed his disappointment at an apparent breakdown in relationships between the council and employees.

He said: “Well I just think that the council has made a fair offer. We know times are difficult for people, we know especially at the lower end of the pay scales, people are finding it increasingly difficult, but we have to balance the needs of our workers with the needs of our ratepayers.

“Whatever we pay in salary increases, the money will have to come out of the rates, that’s how we raise our money, so we have to think of that as well.

“Frankly we feel we have been fair and we feel that things like the 28 days to ballot and so forth to an extent have disappointed us. We thought we had a better working relationship with our unions than what we appear to have.”

LCCC has stated that any updates to the dispute will be announced on its website.

Recently, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council had released the following statement following new that strike action would continue despite a wage and cost of living offer being made by the council on Friday (September 30) to the GMB, NIPSA and Unite the Union.

The local authority asked Unite the Union for a suspension of industrial action whilst its members reviewed the offer.

A LCCC spokesperson said: “The council requested a suspension of industrial action until the ballot had concluded as has been the case in other councils.

“Council was disappointed to learn from Unite the Union that members who are currently on strike would not agree to suspend strike action during the ballot process.

“Whilst council is respectful of an individual’s right to strike, we now face a continued period of significant disruption across essential services for at least a further four-week period.”

Unite regional officer, Kieran Ellison, previously confirmed its ballot result will not be known until October 28.