Council workers vote for strike

The BBC reports today that Council workers have voted in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay.

The public sector workers union Unison has announced that its members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voted by 55% to strike, after rejecting a below-inflation 2.45% pay offer which they argue is effectively a pay cut.

The union is demanding a 6% pay rise or 50p an hour extra, whichever is greater.

A strike would affect a wide range of public services that local communities rely on, including school dinner staff and classroom assistants, care home workers and a range of council services like bin collections and environmental health inspectors.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said his members were "fed up and angry they are expected to accept pay cut after pay cut while bread and butter prices go through the roof.

"Most of them are low-paid workers, who are hit hardest by food and fuel price hikes."

But Brian Baldwin, chairman of the local government employers' negotiators, said: "If the pay settlement was set any higher, then councils will be forced into making unpalatable choices between cutting front line services and laying off staff. Neither unions nor employers would want either of these options.

Of course, another option is for the government to stop wasting vast amounts of money - for example handing a 63% increase in our payments to the audit-failing EU for MEPs to rip off - so that it can give more to local councils to provide both quality essential services and afford fair pay for workers.

The government's preferred inflation measure, the Consumer Prices Index rose, to 3.3% in May, with the Bank of England warning it may reach 4%.

The wider Retail Prices Index measure of inflation - the one used for many pay negotiations - is already at 4.3%.