Council strike to go ahead

Council workers are set to take strike action next month after a bitter row over pay.

Negotiators from Unison agreed that the union's 600,000 council members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out on July 16 and 17. The union's strike committee will meet on Friday to ratify the decision.

Social workers, housing benefit staff, teaching assistants, dinner ladies, cooks, cleaners, architects, traffic wardens and refuse collectors will join the strike in the biggest show of industrial unrest for years.

Unison's head of local government, Heather Wakefield, said: "It is a tough decision to take strike action but our members have shown that they are willing to fight for a fair deal.

"Once the dates are finally agreed, we will be going all out to mobilise maximum support around those strike days. We are, of course, always willing to meet the employers. The solution to this is in their hands.

"They must know that we mean business and they must know that our members cannot afford to take another pay cut this year."

Members of Unison in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voted by 55 per cent to 45 per cent in favour of taking industrial action after rejecting a 2.45 per cent pay offer.

The last major council workers strike was in 2006 over pensions, resulting in closures of libraries, schools, social services departments, museums and housing offices, while rubbish was left uncollected and streets left uncleaned.

Employers pointed out that almost 600,000 council workers were balloted, but the turnout was 27 per cent, although union officials said opinion had hardened since workers voted, because of rising inflation.

Members of the GMB union who work in local government have accepted the same offer, but officials said this was only because they could not afford to go on strike.

The unions were claiming a 6 per cent pay rise or 50p an hour, whichever was greater.

Jobcentre and benefit office workers and other civil servants could take industrial action later in the year in separate rows, while probation officers, Ofsted inspectors, meat and hygiene inspectors and further education staff are also in dispute over pay, highlighting the breadth of anger and simmering unrest across the public sector.

Conservative leader David Cameron urged the Government to be "tough" to make sure the country did not face a wave of public sector strikes.

Anger over public sector pay has been raging for months after the Government made it clear they wanted deals kept to 2 per cent a year for the next few years despite rising inflation, a message underlined by Chancellor Alistair Darling over the weekend.

There have already been strikes by teachers, coastguards, jobcentre staff, museum workers and other civil servants in protest at their pay levels, and more action is likely.

Recent figures showed the number of working days lost through strikes topped a million last year, almost 250,000 more than the previous 12 months.

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