Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at every Further Education college in Northern Ireland staged a one-day strike on the 24th March. The UCU cites issues with pay and workload, and only receiving a 3.8% pay increase over the last seven years.
The proposed 1% pay-rise for all NHS staff in Britain – a pay-cut in real terms – has rightfully led to widespread anger across a workforce who have been on the frontline in fighting the pandemic.
Just one week after International Women’s Day, a bill seeking to restrict abortion access in cases of non-fatal fetal abnormality was backed by a majority of MLAs and passed its second stage. Paul Givan of the DUP put forward this bill, cynically using the guise of defending the rights of disabled people in order to cut across the right to choose. For anti-choice groups, undermining abortion access in these circumstances is the thin end of the wedge, aimed at opening up a broader assault on the right to choose.
We know that Sarah ‘did everything right’; she walked a busy route, she made a phone call and let people know where she was going and when she was going to be home. But that didn’t stop the violent attack that cost her life. Almost 80% of women killed by men in the UK were victims of their domestic partner and were killed in their own home. Safety measures would not have protected them.
