100 signatures reached
To: The Executives of ICTU and NIC-ICTU
Trade Unionists for an All Ireland 'Zero Covid' Strategy
Trade unionists island wide call on the Executive Councils of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions - Northern Ireland Committee to demand that the Governments North and South move urgently towards pursuing a ‘Zero Covid’ -like strategy, as has been done successfully in places such as New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, and as is advocated for by the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group.
Why is this important?
Repeated attempts to "live" with COVID-19 and to "balance lives and livelihoods" have failed, manifesting in the Governments in both Dublin and Stormont putting commercial interests ahead of the health of their people.
We feel at this point there is surely no other game in town. We have been told repeatedly by public health experts that we cannot put all of our eggs in one (vaccine) basket.
It is now time for the the trade union movement to act as the vehicle to deliver the utmost focus on public health and cooperation that is required from both administrations. We are calling on the Executives of ICTU and NIC-ICTU to formally adapt the 'Zero Covid' position and to use all of the tools at its disposal to bring the respective administrations in line.
How it will be delivered
We are encouraging all trade union members to submit motions in support of the pursuit of 'Zero Covid' to their local union branch, so that this can quickly be recognised by all union executives as the desire of workers on this island.
As there are almost a million trade union members on this island, we will do what we can to convince as many of them as we can and we will keep the ICTU and NIC-ICTU executives informed of how the petition is progressing.