Belfast & District Trades Council

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TRADE UNIONS CALL FOR UNIFIED ALTERNATIVE TO

CUTS AGENDA!  

 

 The Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls on all 18 MPs from Northern Ireland,

 

                                                         all MLAs and wider society to speak out against the unnecessary cuts

 agenda of the Con-Dem coalition.

   

 

Speaking today, ICTU Assistant General Secretary Peter Bunting highlighted the “catastrophic consequences   for jobs, both public and private sectors, and the provision of services in Northern Ireland.”

 

Mr Bunting added that the NI Executive’s own estimates for the scale of the planned cuts are “far beyond anything considered by the Thatcher government and will hit Northern Ireland especially hard.

 

“Thousands of private sector jobs are reliant upon public procurement and the consumer spending of public sector workers. Cuts in public sector wages or to benefits will threaten the viability of many private sector workers in the retail and service sector.

 

“The threatened removal of at least £2 Billion from the Executive’s budget would:

 

·                     Lose between 25,000 and 40,000 jobs across Northern Ireland, both in the public and private sectors.

 

·                     Condemn a lost generation to long-term unemployment and accelerate the ‘brain drain’.

 

·                     Devastate the private sector in Northern Ireland through the loss of the purchase of goods and services by the public sector from local private sector businesses.*

 

·                     Cut an additional 40% in capital investment between 2010-2014 sounding the death knell for the construction sector and its supply chain, with further job losses.

 

·                     Slash welfare benefits for the most marginalised in our society.

 

·                     Reduce health, education and other services for all.

 

“An alternative strategy to the current economic difficulties is essential and the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is presently engaged in consultations across all sectors of our society and economy and NIC-ICTU will be announcing details of it’s alternatives to these unnecessary cuts shortly.”

 

 

 

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Meeting Sat 4th Sept

10am

Unison Building, Belfast

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Next meeting of the Belfast Trades Council

Thursday 2nd September

Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre

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May Day 2010

 

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Paddy Mackel: May Day Address

 

 

 

Budget 2010 Will Hit Women and Children First 

 

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls on all 18 MPs from Northern Ireland to vote against this budget which will drag the local economy even further from any meaningful recovery.

 

Speaking after the Chancellor George Osborne made his Budget speech in the House of Commons, Avril Hall-Callaghan, Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee of the ICTU, said:

 

“This budget is regressive and short sighted and will disproportionately affect women both as workers and as mothers, through welfare cuts and pay freezes in the public sector, whose workforce is mostly female.

 

“The private sector and the organisations which claim to speak in their interests have little to cheer about, either. While a handful of large businesses will profit from gradual cuts in Corporation Tax, retailers and service providers will be hit by a double whammy of the increase in VAT to 20% and the decrease in consumer spending by public sector workers. Given the importance to Northern Ireland of the public sector, this will mean more shuttered shops on our streets.     

 

“The opportunity to stimulate the economy, especially in the regions and nations of the UK, is being squandered at the behest of the bond markets and the ideology of this Tory-led coalition. The promised firm action on the banks and on Capital Gains Tax is a limp slap across the wrist, compared to the threat of 25% cuts across most departmental budgets during this Parliament.

 

“We await with trepidation to see what the funding consequences are for the Northern Ireland budget. The 18 MPs we have elected now have a duty to protect the people of Northern Ireland from the regressive intentions of this “progressive alliance working in the national interest”, as George Osborne claimed today. We see little progressive in this budget and less in the interest of Northern Ireland.”

 

 

 

 

 

Links

Irish Congress of Trade Unions (NIC)

NIPSA / UNITE / Unison / PCS / CWU / IBOA / NUJ / NASUWT / USDAW

ICTU Youth / Labour Start / Trademark / Water Charges Campaign