Hi °C | Lo °C A prominent union leader used his speech at the Belfast jobs rally to criticise a high-level Stormont broadside against this newspaper.
First Ministers Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness recently wrote to Belfast Telegraph owner Sir Anthony O’Reilly to complain about its reporting of the Executive.
Their joint letter made allegations of negative coverage, particularly on economic policy matters.
In his speech John Corey of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said: “I would say to the two ministers that what the Belfast Telegraph prints is the least of their problems.
“At the risk of getting a letter from them, I remind them that the people, workers who have lost their jobs, are saying that the Executive and ministers need to do more. What have they done in the last few weeks to get Visteon back in production?
“What have they done to ensure that no company who has had access to public funds will be allowed to treat workers the way Visteon have treated their workers?”
Mr Corey pointed out that over the past six months 15,000 people in Northern Ireland had joined the dole queue.
He said the trade union movement was determined to do all it could to reverse the trend.
The crowd applauded enthusiastically as Mr Corey stated that the problem wasn’t what the Belfast Telegraph reported, but that jobs were being lost and “this rally demands publicly that the First Minister, Deputy First Minister and all Executive ministers do more to help workers who are losing their jobs”.
