Spokesperson Gary Mulcahy added “Bosses from the private sector were brought in to destroy our water service as part of a long-term plan to eventually privatise the water service. Part of that process was to cut jobs, which will undoubtedly lead to a worse service.
“Now that the Assembly has been forced to abandon water charges due to mass support for our campaign to boycott water charges, they should bring the water service fully back into the public sector. Northern Ireland Water is a private company in law and being run as a private company. But it is being publicly funded. The trade unions representing water service workers also need to prepare to whatever industrial action is necessary in order to stop the job losses.”
The Tories claim that massive cuts are necessary because of New Labour's excessive public spending on services and welfare. This is a giant con trick, which every capitalist party - including New Labour - is colluding in. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under New Labour, as under the Tories before them, public spending on measures that decrease poverty has fallen back and as a result inequality and - for much of New Labour's tenure - poverty, have increased.
CWU must prepare for fresh attacks after election
Workers need bailed out, not the bankers – Nationalise the Quinn Group
The Accident and Emergency services at the Mid-Ulster Hospital in Magherafelt and Whiteabbey Hospital in Newtownabbey closed in May. Now all patients in the Northern Trust area have to travel to the Antrim Area Hospital. The Antrim Hospital was widely accepted to be under immense pressure before these closures. The situation will deteriorate further now, with even longer waiting times for casualty treatment and even more patients spending hours or days on trolleys. Prior to this latest cutback the Northern Trust had halted more complex surgery at the Mid-Ulster Hospital and Whiteabbey Hospital and concentrated it at the Antrim and Causeway Hospitals. Both smaller hospitals are no longer acute hospitals, dealing with a full range of illness, and accessible to the surrounding population.