75,000 more workers vote to strike

A FURTHER 75,000 workers in the public service voted to take part in next Tuesday’s 24-hour nationwide strike bringing the total expected participants to more than 250,000.

SIPTU, which has 70,000 public service members, voted 77% in favour of strike action next week although the mandate it has now secured stretches beyond the public service.

It said this round of balloting followed on from a mandate obtained earlier this year to engage in industrial action if the Government and private sector employers did not honour the wage increases agreed in the last national wage agreement or meet to agree an alternative.