Add Your Photos and Video to This Story

Summer strikes for unions

by Dave Keating | June 24, 2008 at 08:11 am | 148 views | add comment

800,000 public sector workers, including school dinner ladies and council trash collectors, are going to stage a strike in the UK next month. The union, Unison, is just one of many that are threatening to stage a "summer of discontent" of strikes over the skyrocketing cost of living in the UK.

A WAVE of summer strikes loomed last night after council workers voted to walk out in a long-running row over pay.

Members of Unison have rejected a 2.45% pay offer, with union officials discussing today what specific action to take, with a two-day strike in July – with more following if no deal is reached – appearing to be the likeliest option.

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

The Unison ballot result came just 24 hours after Chancellor Alistair Darling called for restraint in public sector pay deals, as the Government seeks to keep inflation under control.