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Wednesday, 3rd September, 2025. Vol. 18, Issue 36 • 9A, Crowe Street, Dundalk, Co. Louth Tel: 042 932 0888 | Email: editorial@dundalkleader.com; advertising@dundalkleader.com
In it for the long haul
School secretaries and caretakers vow to continue strike until demands are met By Paul Byrne SCHOOL secretaries and caretakers in Dundalk joined colleagues across the country last Thursday as they began indefinite strike action in a campaign by Fórsa trade union to secure equal treatment and pension inclusion for over 2,600 school staff. After engagement at the WRC last Wednesday concluded without any outcome the decision was made by Forsa to begin indefinite strike action. Fórsa’s head of Education, Andy Pike, said: “We went to the WRC in good faith, but yet again our members have been left with no clarity, or pathway to a fair pension”.
The strike marks a major escalation in efforts to end what Fórsa has described as the “deliberate and indefensible exclusion” of school secretaries and caretakers from the public service pension scheme and other basic entitlements. The decision to strike followed a ballot in which 98% of Fórsa members backed indefinite strike action. Philomena Hunter, school secretary in St Mary’s College (Marist) for almost thirty years said she was striking not so much for herself but for future generations to ensure they got what they deserved from the government. Continued on Page 2 Carol McElroy and Philomena Hunter outside St Mary’s College on Monday afternoon.