Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/504/3210
From The Socialist newspaper, 4 October 2007
Northern Ireland
Classroom assistants on strike
OVER 2,000 classroom assistants took part in a solid one-day strike across Northern Ireland on 26 September against a pay cut and attacks on working conditions. They came out again on 2 October, starting a three-day strike.
Gary Mulcahy Socialist Party Belfast
The Northern Ireland Assembly Minister for Education's 'offer' in June reduced classroom assistants' pay by up to 18% through lengthening the working week from 32.5 hours to 36 hours and by removing the Special Needs Allowance. This forced classroom assistants in the NIPSA union to vote 93% for taking strike action leading to all-out strike.
Parents support the classroom assistants. They are furious that workers who play such a role in the development of special needs children have been treated this way for 13 years. Over 1,000 striking classroom assistants marched through Belfast city centre demanding payment for 13 years of unpaid pay increases and an end to attacks on their working conditions.
The solid strike forced the Minister to make a pathetic offer which would see classroom assistants receive a one-off average payment of £2,000, on condition that they accept a longer working week and the removal of the Special Needs Allowance. This would mean that whatever one-off payment is paid would be wiped out after 12 months, leaving classroom assistants with worse pay and conditions than before.
Since the ballot, NIPSA have recruited 900 extra classroom assistants, a 37.5% increase. The latest Assembly Executive offer will probably be rejected. After the three day strike, if a resolution is not reached all-out strike action will commence from 8 October.
With the Northern Ireland Assembly about to begin to impose its neoliberal Programme for Government, this strike of mostly underpaid women workers from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds is extremely important. It shows the need for an independent working-class, socialist party which can politically represent the interests of workers in the north of Ireland.
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In The Socialist 4 October 2007:
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War and terrorism
Iraq: end the occupation nightmare
Stop the War Coalition (STWC) national demonstration
Editorial and comment
Tory party fears an autumn election
Socialist Party NHS campaign
Socialist Party news and analysis
Classroom assistants on strike
Supermarket price-fixing scandal
Success! Double whammy for nursery campaign
Socialist Party features
EU's anti-working class 'reforms'
Socialist Students
Socialist Party feature
Che Guevara - revolutionary fighter
Socialist Party events
Socialism 2007: Ideas for our future
International socialist news and analysis
Burma: Dictatorship under threat
Socialist Party reviews and comment
QPR buy-out - Reclaim the game!
It's a free world, a film by Ken Loach
Socialist Party workplace news
Local government pay offer: It's time for action
Remploy workers win partial victory
National Shop Stewards Network makes plans
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