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Strike Threat Looms Mandi Millar

Ards Council employees are set to strike unless threats to their pay, conditions and jobs are lifted.

The shake-up in their terms of employment has been described as the most ruthless ever attempted by a local government in preparation for Compulsory Competitive tendering.

As animosity amongst workers mounts, local services could be thrown into chaos if union members ballot for strike action after a meeting with the council next week.

"In my mind there is no doubt that the feeling of the union members is that there will have to be strike action," said Colin Irons of the General and Municipal Boilermakers'Union.

At a mass meeting last week, members of the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA), the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union (ATGWU) and the General and Municipal Boilermakers'Union (GMB) rejected new terms and conditions which, their authors believe, would make the council more competitive in keeping contracts in-house when competing with the private sector.

"We have totally rejected what the council is offering the workers. The ramifications of what's on the table would be just too far-reaching in terms of what it would cost employees financially," said Mr Irons.

Stalemate

The only chink of hope, he said, was the fact the council had accepted the unions'rejection of what was being offered and their willlingness to meet representatives in a bid to solve the stalemate. Mr Irons, however, refused to discuss exactly what was being offered until further discussions had taken place.

And David Fallows, Ards Town Clerk, was equally tight-lipped, declining to comment through the Press on "industrial relations".

The package being offered under the CCT regime would affect employees across the board. Ards Borough Council has responsibility for refuse collection and disposal, street cleansing, public toilets, sports halls and leisure centres, swimming pools, burial grounds, parks and open spaces, abattoirs, tourism and cultural facilities.

"In preparation for CCT the council is attempting to undertake a totally different formula for pay and once that's introduced it will cut across every department," said Mr Irons. "The only people it won't affect are probably the Town Clerk and Chief Executive." Mr Irons said there was increasing animosity amongst employees. "The workers have absolutely rejected what's been offered. I can't state that too strongly," he said.

Strike

"I assume that after we meet with the council there will be a ballot and strike action, I feel, would be a real possibility."

Mr Irons said Ards was the first council to be so "far-reaching" in its preparation for CCT.

"The terms being offered to employees are certainly the worst I have ever seen," said the official, who has worked with councils across the province in their bids to prepare for competitive tendering for former in-house jobs.

He claimed that 80 per cent of councils in England retained their contracts without interfering with employees'conditions.

"Belfast City Council hasn't even touched its pay and conditions," he added.
