It is now five years since airport security workers at Belfast International airport were sacked for taking strike action after their union, the T&GWU, repudiated their strike.

Five years on, the workers are still fighting for justice. They are waiting the outcome of their industrial tribunal case that the four shop stewards were sacked because of their “trade union opinions and socialist beliefs”.

Given the weight of evidence in their favour and the inability of the employer, security firm, ICTS, to mount any defence, they are confident of a favourable outcome.

But as to their demand for an explanation from their union as to why they repudiated a legal strike and gave a green light to ICTS to sack them, they still are not any further forward. They are now preparing to take their demand that the union set up an independent inquiry into what happened when they were sacked and the way the union has handled the issue since to the T&GWU office in London.

Sacked shop steward and Socialist Party member, Gordon McNeill explained why: “When the Tribunal case ended we sent a letter on 12 June to T&GWU secretary, Tony Woodley and to every local official asking for discussions to try to resolve our differences. We hoped that, if we won the Tribunal, we could issue a joint press release with the union saying that this was an important victory for all trade unionists and, despite our past differences, we were jointly appealing to all workers to join and get active in the unions.

“It’s now eight weeks on and we have not even had the courtesy of an acknowledgement of this letter, never mind a reply. Because the union abandoned us, we had to employ our own legal team and now have a legal bill close to £300,000.

“In the last couple of weeks we have spoken to local union officials asking them to take up our case with Tony Woodley and see if we could arrange a meeting. Nothing has come of this.

“When I rang the new Irish Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, he defended Tony Woodley saying he had ‘done nothing but good for us’. He also justified not replying to our June letter, saying; ‘ who would reply to a letter like that?’

“All this leaves us with no option but to take our protest to Tony Woodley in London. We intend to go on hunger strike in the T&GWU, now UNITE, offices until our demands for an inquiry and help with our legal fees are met.”

Related:
- Sacked Belfast Airport Workers Committee Press Release
- Sacked Belfast Airport Workers Committee Leaflet
- Media coverage of the press conference

Classroom workers across Northern Ireland are preparing for strike action in September to defend and improve their pay. 

In June management, with the blessing of the Education Minister, presented a pay package to classroom workers which amounted to a drastic pay cut.  The workers rejected the proposal outright and are now preparing for strike action. 

 The strike could affect up to one thousand schools and the proposed all out strike action means that the government has now provoked a major confrontation with education workers. 

For NIPSA and the other education unions, there is a huge amount work to do to prepare for the strike. But if the leaders of the unions have the same determination as the workers, we will win this hard battle.