Unite joins strike
- Published: 27 June 2008 09:29
- Author: Simon Ellery
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- Last Updated: 27 June 2008 14:18
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Unite members are to join Unison colleagues in two days of strike action that threatens to shut down local government next month.
In a ballot of nearly 40,000 members, Unite voted three-to-one in favour of a strike on 16 and 17 July in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
However turnout was just 26% - one percentage point lower than Unison's ballot. The union's industrial action committee is expected to formally call for strike action later today (27 June 2008).
Peter Allenson, Unite's public sector national secretary, said Local Government Employers' 2.45% offer - worth 3.3% for the lowest paid – was effectively a pay cut with inflation at 4.3% by the Retail Price Index.
Staff 'victims of rising inflation'
"It is simply unfair and untrue to accuse public sector workers of stimulating price rises," Mr Allenson said. "Low paid local government workers are more likely to be the victims, rather than the cause of, rising inflation."
The GMB, the nation's second-largest union in local government, voted to accept employer's pay offer in May.
Unison has more than 800,000 members, three-quarters of whom were balloted on the strike action, with the others working at councils not part of the National Joint Council pay-bargaining scheme.
Local government workers in Scotland are being balloted next month on taking strike action after rejecting a three-year offer worth 2.5% in each year.
