Disruption to public services expected as more than 300,000 workers begin strike

Main points

• More than 300,000 workers are holding a one-day work stoppage over pay talks today
• Employees are seeking a new public sector deal, with trade unions arguing that pay terms must be agreed ⁠before other issues are addressed
• Most colleges, schools and universities are closed
• Thousands of medical appointments have been cancelled but emergency departments remain open as do GPs and pharmacists
• Court services have been curtailed, Leinster House is closed and many local authority services are all set to be disrputed
• Renewed efforts by Government to get trade unions into talks on a new public sector pay deal were dismissed as ‘too little, too late’ yesterday
• Another work stoppage is planned for Wednesday 21st

Key Reads

• Q+A: What services will be affected by the public sector strike and what will be closed?
• John McManus: Why we must have this performative strike by public sector workers
• Podcast: What is the strike about and why it hasn’t been averted?

Taoiseach’s feathers ruffled in Dáil

Micheál Martin had a tetchy exhange with a metaphor-chucking Mary Lou McDonald in the Dáil Chamber on Tuesday.

She accused him of “playing chicken” with the public sector unions. Now, McDonald implied, the chicken games were coming home to roost.

Whatever about the chickens, he remained unflappable throughout. Only his innocence seemed injured. More than once, he spoke of the “enhanced social dialogue” he had offered trade unions in vain.

Frank McNally details the exhange in his Dáil sketch here.

Unions urge Taoiseach to intervene to prevent more strikes

The Taoiseach should intervene to get a talks process started if further public sector strikes and disruption are to be prevented, Fórsa union leader Kevin Callinan has suggested.

As Emmet Malone and Pat Leahy report, he was speaking after the union side rebuffed late efforts by Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers and the Government side to engage and prevent Wednesday’s one-day strike.

Callinan was responding to a suggestion by Chambers that while the Government wanted talks to begin at the Workplace Relations Commission on Tuesday, he would consider other ways to achieve progress if that could not be done.

Asked about what might break the deadlock, Callinan, who also chairs the public services committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said it would take “an intervention. And I think that intervention has to come from ... the Taoiseach.”

The Government is likely to make a push to bring the unions into a talks process after the stoppage as it seeks to avoid further strikes scheduled for next week.

According to sources familiar with the Government’s position, renewed efforts to start negotiations in the coming days may include seeking an independent mediator or facilitator to bring the two sides together. Coalition sources stopped short of saying they would agree to the unions’ demand to deal with pay first in the negotiations.

It is likely that informal approaches will be made with a view to repairing relations which have become strained in recent days.

Government appeals fall on deaf ears

The Taoiseach urged trade unions yesterday to engage in further dialogue ahead of the strike.

Micheál Martin expressed concern around the disruption that could be caused and said the €1.2 billion the Government set aside in the recent budget for a pay deal, provided a strong foundation for talks.

“We did appeal (on Monday) for the unions to come in for talks, and I would say in the recent budget, the Government made a number of efforts, and took a number of initiatives, that were important for workers – significant tax cuts, continued expansion of public service numbers and specific initiatives on reducing the cost of childcare,” the Taoiseach said.

“In my view, there is a strong foundation there laid by the budget and other measures to facilitate productive negotiations on a new national pay agreement. We have negotiated previous pay agreements in good faith, there is no reason why anyone should doubt our bona fides in respect of negotiating a new package.

“My real concern is the disruption that will be caused to many people, particularly patients who were expecting operations and procedures and indeed in terms of school days being lost.”

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers had called on the unions to postpone the strike and instead enter talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.

However, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ Public Service Committee said there was “no basis” for the strike to be postponed.

What’s closed? What services are affected?

Órla Ryan has a comprehensive piece here detailing the background to the strike action and the impact it will have on public life today.

Here is what you need to know about the strike and its expected impact.

Now begins a winter of discontent?

Good morning. Hundreds of thousands of public sector staff go on strike today on what could potentially be the first day of a long winter of discontent.

About 300,000 public sector workers, including nurses, doctors, teachers and civil servants, will engage in the national strike following earlier work-to-rule action.

Schools, colleges, universities, libraries, council offices and many parks are among the publicly run facilities that are closed because of the action, which involves some 300,000 workers.

Health services are severely disrupted, with all elective procedures and thousands of appointments postponed. The HSE has warne of “significant and widespread” disruption” to its services.

Members of Fórsa, Ireland’s largest public sector union, as well as Siptu had voted in favour of industrial action including strike.

The major teachers’ unions as well as collective bodies for nurses, midwives and doctors also voted in favour of action.