Downpatrick-based BT And Openreach Workers Support National Strike Against BT
Chris Brown, Communication Workers Union (CWU) regional representative in Northern Ireland, said on the picket line at the Downpatrick Exchange that: “Our members – 10,000 BT and 30,000 Openreach workers – are struggling now to pay their bills across our area.
“Some, the lower paid workers, have even resorted to Food Banks. This is a dire state of affairs and exists at a national level. The CWU has asked for a 10% increase. However, this is now below the level of inflation and we are back-peddling.
“Our workers just want a fair pay rise, but management are now forthcoming with a significant offer despite BT having made £1.4 billion profit in the last financial year.
“Meanwhile we have seen the top tier and the Chief Executive Philip Johnston in BT receiving huge increases in their incomes.”
Across the UK today the 40,000 CWU workers are striking. In Northern Ireland there are approximately 4000 CWU members who are also on the picket line demanding better wages and conditions.
Chris Brown added: “For the past 33 years BT employees have received consolidated, inflationary pay rises as a norm. It’s only since Philip Jansen became CEO that this trend has declined.”
“In 2019-20 there was a pay rise of 1.5% which was three months late and was not backdated.
“There was then a £1000 one-off payment to workers, and this certainly favoured those who were worse off, but in real terms it did not help most of the BT workers. It just seems that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”
A post on the CWU Facebook page said that the workers are fighting “for fair pat against a company that made £1.3 million profit, gave £750 million to shareholders and handed the CEO and financial officer nearly £6 million pay packages.”
“It calls for a new social settlement for working people of Britain and to develop rights and provision for those same workers.
“It is a national shame that despite being one of the richest countries in the world, inequality between the wealthy and the workers has never been this bad.
“The pandemic exposed the cost of electing the Tories. Key workers, including CWU members, sacrificed everything during the COVID-19 crisis, to protect ordinary people and their families.
“While those on the frontline risked their lives by simply going to work, the Tories sipped champagne and partied without a care. Their callousness cost lives.”
 regional representative in Northern Ireland, said on the picket line at the Downpatrick){kind=link}