> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://aontachtmedia.ie/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # General Strike Potential? Public Sector Shuts Down Ireland in Historic Strike - URL: https://aontachtmedia.ie/general-strike-potential-public-sector-shuts-down-ireland-in-historic-strike/ - Published: 2026-10-15T12:37:14.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-15T12:37:13.000Z - Description: Over 300,000 workers from every corner and end of the public sector are on strike today in the most widespread industrial action since 2009, demanding pay talks in the face of shrinking pay packets due to the cost of living and housing crises. - Author: Aontacht Newsroom - Tags: News More than 300,000 public sector workers walked off the job yesterday in a 24 hour national strike, and likely will next week again unless workers get their demands. The strikes shut schools, halted hospital appointments and closed the Daíl entirely in the largest industrial action of its kind since 2009\. The strike, coordinated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) Public Services Committee, applies to members of the following trade unions: Forsa, SIPTU, INMO, INTO, TUI, ASTI as well as other unions across health, education, local government and the civil service. Overall in much of the country to varying degrees amongst the unions, trade union bureaucrats wanted to keep the PR limited to spokespeople so many ordinary members could not give interviews. The strike comes after the Government refused to grant a most basic demand of workers: That pay be the first item on the agenda in negotiations for a new public sector pay deal. Unions have stated that the previous agreement, already expired since June, fell between 5% and 7% below inflation. This amounts to, in real terms, a pay cut for workers who are all that keeps the state running. This is from a government who gave themselves a pay increase back in June instead of addressing the expiry of the previous pay deal and giving the public sector workers their due. The government has allocated only €1.2 billion in Budget 2027 last week to pay the entire public sector, and unions say this is nowhere near enough. Forsa General Secretary Kevin Callinan said the allocation would allow for “at the very best, 2.5% increase for next year” which when set against inflation running at 4.1% “is a paycut in real terms. **Background** The strikes follow weeks of work to rule action that began on the 30th of September. This is a dispute about the agenda, not just the money. Unions are demanding that pay increases be the first agenda item in any negotiations, rather than being buried with productivity and workplace reform at the end of the agreement. Which, one would think, that common sense would dictate that pay should be front and centre to a pay agreement. Minister Jack Chambers wrote to union leaders on Monday inviting them to talks at The Workplace Relations Commission. This was, understandably, rejected within hours. ICTU’s public sector committee said Minister Chamber’s letter “did not represent any change in his previously stated position” which is in keeping with the government's dismissiveness so far. Taoiseach Michaeal Martin said he was “baffled” by the lack of movement and Minister Chambers described the strike as "unnecessary". This attitude is a slap in the face to workers, as the government had every opportunity to avert this strike action by giving the workers what they need. The 2024 - 2026 Public Service Agreement expired at the end of June leaving over 400,000 workers without a collective pay agreement for the first time since 2010\. The INMO held lunchtime protests at hospitals across the country on the 8th of October over the delays and for the first time in its history the Irish Dental Association served notice of industrial action on behalf of its members in the HSE. **Report On The Strike In Limerick** Meanwhile in County Limerick at least 100 workers picketed different sites in Newcastlewest including the HSE offices, St.Ita’s Hospital, Schools and The Intreo Offices. It was similar at sites across the county although reporters from Aontacht were only in person in Newcastlewest due to the fact pickets wound up at 4pm and our reporters are part time and rural, there were however an estimated 400 people picketing UHL alone as well as thousands across the city. We have received reports of an atmosphere of great solidarity in Limerick City and County yesterday as workers from different sectors of the public service as well as different unions shared food and facilities. On Mulgrave Street, at the College of Further Education, across the way from the prison one of the music lecturers from the college serenaded the picket both sides of the road with the blues on saxophone, for example. Due to the lack of official reps in Newcastlewest and possibly fears of speaking out, most declined to interview besides some SIPTU members at St. Ita’s Hospital. Forsa and ASTI members were particularly apprehensive, as the word seemingly was across unions in the county was to be careful what is said and that any line was to be official, given the behaviour of the government on this issue, this is understandable. SIPTU members in St.Ita’s Newcastlewest however, with whom we had a very good chat, told us that their biggest issues beyond pay and the cost of living is the staff shortage, “The biggest thing is the staff shortage, yeah, that's the biggest thing, we don’t have enough staff, HSE staff, to run the hospital” they went on to tell us that at this stage they were “Completely reliant on Agency (staff)” and that “We have permanent members of staff living in Mallow, Yeah, Commuting, which is ridiculous because they can’t get local accommodation”. Reporters probed their thoughts on the amenability of the government towards bringing a resolution to this issue. They told us that they hoped so, and stated that they did not want to be there. “We don’t actually want to be here” they went on to tell us “we finished night duty on Monday morning. We did 7 nights each” One of them put it plainly “I would like to be home in my own house. The other staff, they want to be at work. We don’t want to be sent out here but they’re not really giving us any choice. They are not being reasonable. They are on notice since June as well” They also wanted the general public to understand that they were 4 months waiting for them to talk to them, and that it was far too late when Jack Chambers came out trying to talk after the strike was organised. “Why didn’t he talk to us 3 months ago?” They said. When one of our reporters asked them how it felt considering the fact the government gave themselves a pay rise back in June just before the agreement was due, and if it felt like a slap in the face, they went on to tell us: “It is a little bit. They’re far more important is what they are telling us. Far more important. With inflated salaries. Well, no matter who’s in their job my job gets done. Yeah, because I'm still doing it still and he’s (gestures to colleague) here doing it. Another one of the striking workers interjected off the foot of this: There's a big class divide here between the elite and the ordinary. And the regular people, like, and that has to change. Yeah, simple as that. And if it doesn't, they'll know it at the next election. And people aren't stupid either. And I know that the left will have to galvanise together, And they better get their act together as well. Yeah, cohesively Another interjected: One of the groups and one of the parties on their own is not enough. They have to come together and talk to each other as well. They went on between them to discuss with us the need for the left to unify and provide a real alternative to what is there, with mild discussion of the last election. One of them put it plainly: “Yeah, because otherwise the same crowd are going to get in again, and that's what they're hoping for.They're coasting along thinking, so there's no one to oppose us, no real threat.” Their colleague joined in “And you wait and see, they're going to be giveaway budgets in the last 2 budgets before the next term” We then launched into discussion about the future for young people and the hardships of the working class. They spoke to us about the struggles people are facing keeping a roof over their heads and fuel in their cars to get to work. One of them told us that she has “2 young lads in their 20s at home. All their friends are either gone or going to Australia, and as soon as they are finished their apprenticeships, what are they going to do?” to which her colleague agreed “they’ll have to go. It's not that there isn’t work here, but you just can’t get going here” One of them said “3 of my adult children are living at home because they can’t afford rent. We have the space for them, but I know families and they’re all still in the 3 bedroom house and there might be 4 or 5 adults” To which one of our reporters added that in some families you are into the 3rd generation, and the picketers solemnly concurred. On the issue of the left needing to provide an alternative, they were steadfast in their criticism. “It is up to Sinn Féin, it is up to Labour and it's up to the Independents and whoever else is involved to get their act together and give the people of Ireland an alternative, because if they don’t, Fine Gael and Fianna Faíl came together to keep out sinn Féin last time, and it worked, and the people swallowed it” They discussed and agreed that the left has to get its act together and that the left has a lot of work to do. One of them asked: “Do they need a mandate? If they do, come out and say it” although they were thankful that Sinn Féin Senator Joanne Collins came out to see them, seemingly other than Senator Collins and our reporters (who have attachments to other radical groups and parties), chauffeured by an IWU man out in solidarity, no one else bothered to show up in an organised way to support the striking workers of Newcastlewest, which is frankly disgraceful. Where were Labour and others who *have* a good presence in the county? Who were developed originally out of the trade union movement and once used to do good numbers in the county before they abandoned it to Fianna Faíl? One of them stated: “The only thing that will work is the ballot box. Any SIPTU representative will tell you that they are a socialist set up union, they were born out of that, they were born out of socialism and like, the social contract is broken. For any young person, it is alright for me, my house is paid for. The rest of my family haven’t. The only reason I paid for it is I worked abroad most of my life.” he also stated “I’m expecting the Irish people to vote properly and for the people that are there to get their act together properly” Their colleague rightly stated: “Candidates are supposed to be there, you can’t vote for candidates that aren’t there, and that's a major issue because the left don't bother their -- they don’t bother, they’re barely there” After this, the discussion went over more into electoralism, now, whether you dear reader, agree with them or not on the issue of electoralism, and not getting into at all the drift of both the Labour Party and SIPTU from where they started out, there is demand on the picket for them to return to their socialist roots. To fight for people, to centre the worker once more. This is true even outside of Urban centres, the question here is will they answer the demand that is clearly there? Or will they continue chasing establishment legitimacy to the detriment of their people? Watch interviews from elsewhere in the country on our [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/aontacht.media?vrfl=MTlqa3cxeHU1N3kwYg==&ref=aontachtmedia.ie) and [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@aontacht.media?%5Fr=1&%5Ft=ZN-9AZinWlkGTG&ref=aontachtmedia.ie) **Conclusion** We will hold off on further criticism of SIPTU, as their members were good enough to talk to us and give us a very good, honest perspective. We will be the first to give fair dues when an organisation is doing the right thing, regardless of positioning besides. This was not true of all unions present at the pickets in the county. This is not an attack, but we would ask unions on behalf of their workers to look at what their workers want and need, and to become more radical in pursuit of it. This is a moment in history, the largest strike in a generation. The ball is entirely in the left’s courts as a collective, and in the union’s courts as to how they wish to respond and how they wish to capitalise on the very clear mandate being given here for all of us. None of us are doing enough, and for some, it's been quite a while since they were even asked to. There persists a danger that danger of trade union bureaucrats bending the knee to the government. If they do that, they won’t have this chance again. The government beyond the €1.2 billion allocated in the budget to public sector pay holds an additional €1.6 billion in contingency funds and would rather let public services be shut down than to do the job they were elected to do and gave themselves a pay increase for instead of negotiating a reasonable pay agreement back in June when it was due. It is there that the public ire for any disruption should be aimed. No worker should subsidise the state's failures through a shrinking pay packet due to the cost of living crisis the government themselves created. We should in all other sectors however, be asking ourselves, considering the government's failure to even provision for their own direct employees and their refusal to address the cost of living for everyone, should we join them and shut everything down? The workers certainly seem to see the across the class need to resist our various crises of the moment. We could pull this off if unions have the will and the people can muster the solidarity.