Northern Ireland strikes: Who's striking, why and what services are affected?
Northern Ireland is facing the biggest day of strike action in the country’s history on Thursday 18 January.
Members of 16 trade unions across the public sector are taking part in 24 hour-strike action on the same day.
The strike is impacting health services, education, public transport and the roads service amongst others.
An estimated 170,000 workers are expected to walk out.
Why are they striking?
The day of coordinated strike action is in protest at nearly two years without a functioning Stormont Executive.
Around £584m has been promised by the government to address public sector pay issues but it is as part of a financial package of £3.3b dependent on the return of the Assembly.
The Secretary of State refusing to release the money for pay awards without the return of the Executive has also angered unions and workers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the strikes are: “An unprecedented demonstration of the power of workers in Northern Ireland. For almost two years, the absence of a functioning Stormont Executive has led to growing paralysis and crisis across public sector services.
“This situation has been made worse by a secretary of state for Northern Ireland who has sought to leverage the crisis in the current negotiations through imposing a punishing budgetary settlement.
“Unite will not allow the livelihoods of workers and the funding of public services to be used as a bargaining chip by this government.”
What unions are striking?
British Dietetic Association (BDA)
Charted Society of Physiotherapists (CSP)
GMB
Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO)
Society of Radiographers (SoR)
Siptu
National Association of Headteachers (NAHT)
National Association of Schoolteachers and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT)
National Education Union (NEU)
Nipsa
Royal College of Midwives (RCM)
Royal College of Nurses (RCN)
Ulster Teachers Union (UTU)
Unison
Unite
What will be impacted?
Roads
The roads service will not just be impacted for one day, as after Thursday members of the GMB and Unite unions will stage a week long strike. This will continue to impact gritting services.
The Department for Infrastructure is also warning that there will be disruption to:
Repair of serious infrastructure defects such as manhole collapse or potholes;
Prioritisation of assistance to those incidents with most impact to life and property;
Response and clear-up operation when there are incidents on the road such as oil spills or unexpected debris;
Drainage infrastructure clearing and cleansing;
MOT services and driving tests;
Strangford Ferry services;
Significantly reduce our capacity to respond to flood emergencies;
Significant delays in responding to calls to the flood incident line.
The DfI say this combined with the weather warnings means they “would advise people to avoid travel if possible”.
Health Service
Health care services in Northern Ireland face “massive” disruption on an “unprecedented scale” Health and Social Care Trust bosses have warned.
They say there will be a minimal emergency service similar to Christmas day available “at best”.
The Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland has told the trusts it will not be staffing dialysis, chemotherapy, and elective and routine surgery. It will cover intensive and emergency departments - and will consider emergency surgery.
Some health trusts have said to assume appointments are cancelled, others have said unless told otherwise, assume appointments will go ahead. Trusts have said they will provide updates on their websites.
The ambulance service has said there will be cover but those in less clinical need will notice lengthy delays. The public has been asked to "not hesitate" to call 999 but to not repeatedly call back to check on where the ambulance is.
A spokesperson said: "We stress that ambulances will still be available. However, they will be limited and we will prioritise patients with life-threatening injuries or illnesses."
Education
Many schools and special schools are expected to close and parents are urged to check with their school.
At those that do open, the Education Authority are warning that there will be disruption to their yellow bus service and no Ulsterbus services.
They are also warning there may be no school meals available and disruption to cleaning.
Public Transport
There will be no Translink bus or train services operating during the strike.
All refunds will be based on unused travel during the Industrial Action period – all other unused travel that does not fall within this period will not be refunded. Refund requests must be made after the industrial action has ended and before 29 February 2024.
What about the bins?
Councils have said they are not expecting disruption and bin collections and other council services will continue as normal.
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