Irish public workers strike, protest cuts

DUBLIN, Ireland, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Much of Ireland's public sector was idled Tuesday as up to 250,000 civil and public servants staged a strike, union officials said.

Union leaders representing nurses, teachers, firefighters and other employees walked off the job to protest the government's plans to cut pay in a bid to reduce the nation's budget deficit, the Irish Times reported.

"Teachers and lecturers are prepared to take their fair share of pain in the current economic climate but the proposed cuts are disproportionate and selectively applied," the Teachers' Union of Ireland said in a statement, noting 1,000 second-level teachers have already lost their jobs this year.

Union members feel they have been were forced into the strike because all other avenues had been exhausted, Bernard Harper of the trade union Impact told RTE News.

"The focus will be finding a solution to this not on further industrial action," Harper told the Irish broadcaster. "But I think it is likely that the unions will say that if the government is not prepared to find an alternative to the cost savings it's looking for ... then there is likely to be further industrial action."