It should be met with complete opposition by all workers, trade unionists and political parties. Unfortunately, the response of the Stormont politicians has fallen well short in this respect. The SDLP’s Tim Atwood has stated he hopes “that equity and fairness is shown in how these job losses are handled”, while making a reference to the fact that the Falls Rd depot is a mixed workforce. For the SDLP, it is not a matter of opposing job cuts. They want to see job losses to be equally and fairly spread between Catholic and Protestant workers – equality on the dole!
Sinn Fein’s Paul Maskey has also rushed out a press release calling for jobs to be protected at Falls Rd depot. However, Mr. Maskey fails to point out that Translink is a direct responsibility of his Sinn Fein colleague, the Minister for Regional Development Conor Murphy. Sinn Fein cannot claim to oppose job losses at Translink while Conor Murphy is the Minister responsible for public transport. Given the mess the Minister has overseen in his own Department over NI Water, Paul Maskey should clearly call for the Minster to swiftly intervene to guarantee there are no job losses at Translink.
The massive spending cuts the new “Con-Dem” government will announce in June’s emergency budget will be the first stage of an unrelenting attack on working class people, sustained over years. Despite the veneer of opposition from some MLA’s, the local politicians are fully committed to implementing this Thatcherite agenda.
The draft ‘Public Assemblies’ Bill under discussion by the Assembly Executive has been branded a ‘disgrace’ by local anti-racist campaigner and South Belfast Socialist Party spokesperson Paddy Meehan.
The blatant way in which young people were singled out as easy targets in the recent budget was a draconian and discriminatory attack by the government.
In January, the Office for National Statistics declared the UK was out of recession – even if growth was a measly 0.1%! However, for workers the recession is far from over.