According to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, actual average wages in Fermanagh collapsed by 11% last year! The median wage in Fermanagh fell from £299.50 down to £266.50 a week. Strabane has the lowest paid workers in Northern Ireland, with median wages only £251.70. Women workers in particular have seen major cuts in pay, widening the pay gap between men and women. Women now earn on average 83% of male workers.
The construction industry crash especially has devastated conditions for workers. Cookstown saw the biggest drop in male earnings. Male workers in Cookstown are the lowest paid across Northern Ireland with an average wage of just £308 a week. Dungannon has seen wages fall by 7%. The recession has been ceased upon by greedy bosses to slash wages. Workers are being left with the skimmed milk whilst the fat cats get all the cream!
The UN’s Copenhagen climate summit has failed to deliver any significant response to the rising threat of global warming. This is unsurprising given recent history of such events, with most industrialised countries currently failing to meet even the grossly insufficient targets agreed at Kyoto back in 1997. This further demonstrates the inability of capitalism to solve the key problems facing the world today.
The education system is in turmoil. In November 2011 John O Dowd, the Sinn Fein Education Minister, announced that school budgets would be cut by £220 million, an 11% reduction over three years. This will have a catastrophic impact on schools.
This week is the 75th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, on 18 July 18. We mark this hugely important event in world history with an article first published on socialistworld.net in 2009.