We Need A Wave Of Workers’ Strike Action

We need a wave of workers’ strikes to deal with the cost of living crisis, to take on anti-union employers and to fight redundancy. There’s a real anger out there among workers like myself because we are working long hours but our take home pay is shrinking in real terms.

But there’s a real bubbling up of strike actions by workers in the last few months. We saw this most spectacularly with the school secretaries and caretakers. They get nothing except a handshake when they retire and should get the same pensions as other public sector workers.

Special Needs Assistants showed amazing solidarity during last years strike, defying the 1990 Industrial Relations Act, which outlaws real solidarity, by standing on picket lines with their fellow workers.

But their union Fórsa took the lies of the government at face value and were duped into talks that offered nothing. They pulled pickets for false promises and lost the campaign valuable momentum. School secretaries and caretakers need to get back out on the picket lines this year and stay out until victory.

Tech workers at Covalen have been striking over the threat of 300 redundancies, with workers offered nothing except statutory redundancy payments. These workers have had several days of strike action over the last few months but their union, the CWU, needs to go all out to win.

Nurses at Naas General Hospital began industrial action on February 9th over critical staffing deficits in the Emergency Department. This work to rule has been called because nurses are at breaking point. This strike is seen as a test case for a wider national nurses’ walkout.

Forsa Clinical Measurement Staff in HSE and Section 38 hospitals were set to engage in a work-to-rule on January 30th over a stalled workforce review.

SIPTU members working as Health Care Assistants in HSE Home Support Services in Donegal, Clare, Limerick, Cork, and Kerry have 24-hour work stoppages throughout February 2026 due to unresolved pay and rostering issues.

40 years of Thatcherite policies has left the health service in smithereens and nurses and other frontline workers are left to hold it together. There needs to be coordinated national action that aims to bring the government to heel. Our unions can’t just accept a negotiated retreat as the health service falls apart.

The IWU union supported its members in Northside Dublin home care roles as they took days of strike action.

The INMO have a 95% ballot mandate to go all out. They should use that instead of calling out one hospital, stalling momentum and then begging the government for a round of talks that the government uses to stall while continuing the same policies.

There are also more issue with redundancies with many businesses closing shop. SIPTU reps will meet management at Newbridge Silverware to discuss threat to make 11 workers redundant at the plant in Newbridge, County Kildare.

SIPTU representatives are also to meet the management of the KOSTAL manufacturing plant Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, to minimise compulsory redundancies at the German car part manufacturer.

At Leprino Foods in Portlaoise SIPTU reps are engaged with management following the announcement that the company intends to cease production at its plant in 2026. There are job losses all over with Intel cutting 195 jobs, Amazon due to cut 100s of workers in Ireland and Workday cutting 400 jobs.

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is cutting up to 210 jobs across its facilities in Grange Castle Dublin, Ringaskiddy Cork and in Newbridge Kildare. Viatris is gradually winding down its manufacturing plant in Little Island, Cork.

In the wake of the 2008 crash we saw lots of workers resist redundancy by occupying their workplaces. This happened at Waterford Crystal and at Thomas Cooks. By taking action the workers got far better redundancy terms and made their plight a national news item.

In retail Mandate Trade Union has criticised Dunnes Stores’ announcement of a 3% pay increase for workers, well below inflation. The union also “expressed its disappointment” that Tesco Ireland Ltd issued a unilateral pay award to its staff ignoring the union’s request to engage in collective bargaining.

These retail companies are making a fortune while workers’ wages fall behind, Mandate need to fight rather than just sitting and waiting for these greedy bosses to agree to talks.

The ASTI has considered motions for escalating teachers’ industrial action in September 2026. This is aimed at securing a 6% pay increase. There’s no word on action yet. Rank and file teachers need to ask why.

Dublin Bus unions (SIPTU and NBRU) have highlighted grievances with new KPI targets and “preset box systems” which lead to micromanagement and increased stress for workers. Workers are slaves to micromanagement by automated systems.

Dublin Bus maintenance workers suspended a 2025 action to allow for “intensive talks” after their demand for a 14.5% pay increase was rejected by the Labour Court, they need to take action in 2026.

If all these strikes and potential strikes were unleashed the government would be in crisis and the employers forced to concede to workers’ demands. But the bureaucracy at the top of our unions keeps strikes to single day actions, or one workplace.

Strike action is just seen as a way to draw attention to the issue but not as a key weapon and the real power that us workers have. If we down tools no profits are made that day. If we down tools public services grind to a halt.

We in the Red Network want to see an Ireland where workers are in the driving seat of the planned economy and we get to democratically decide what’s done with the great wealth our labour produces. That’s why we don’t confine ourselves to negotiated retreat.

We want to keep fighting until the cost of living crisis is a thing of the past and nurses aren’t holding together a sinking health service. To get there we need to build up grassroots strength in all the major unions and light a fire under our union leaders. They may be incorporated into the mechanisms of the state. We aren’t.