Local business gets behind striking workers

School secretaries and caretakers represented by trade union Fórsa once again took their pickets from outside schools and brought them to the offices of the two Government Ministers in Mullingar.

The Westmeath school support staff brought the fight for parity with their colleagues in the education sector to the county town in a vocal display for the second time this week.

Local business, Apache Pizza, showed support for the strikers when they delivered a consignment of pizzas for those on the picket.

The strikers are seeking to have the Department of Education classify them as public servants, which would entitle them to a public service pension, among other benefits.

A large group of the Fórsa union members assembled outside the offices of Ministers Peter Burke and Robert Troy today.

Yesterday the Fórsa trade union declined an invitation to return to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for talks to resolve the school secretaries and caretakers dispute.

The union said it was unable to accept the invitation because the Government would not confirm that the talks would be about when and how secretaries and caretakers could be integrated into the public service pension scheme.