About 60 staff are set to take industrial action

The nationwide action is the first by defence workers at the union for 26 years and is over a pay deal which leaders said was lower then inflation.

Up to 66 staff out of the 500 at the Shropshire base are set to strike.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the action was unnecessary and the deal was comparable to other industries.

Rod Brown, a union representative at the base, said the MoD had imposed a pay deal involving an average increase of 3.5% for each year of a two-year deal.

Return to negotiations

But he said Prospect members would only get the minimum increase of 2.5% under the terms of the deal.

He said members taking action included lecturers at the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering, those providing computer systems maintenance and health and safety staff.

Classes at the college would be cancelled as a result, he said.

"Even by the MoD figures this increase is below inflation and by our figures substantially below inflation, our member will be worse off as a result.

"The MoD has decided to impose this deal on staff, all we're trying to do is to get them back to the negotiating table.

"We have a claim for 2007 which we think can redress what is wrong with this deal," he said.