Council workers to vote on strike action over pay
LDRSLocal authority workers are due to be balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
Unite members at Durham County Council will vote in the coming weeks on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action after the union rejected a 3.2% pay offer.
Sharon Graham, Unite's general secretary, said the way the Local Government Association (LGA) had conducted pay negotiations had been "nothing short of a disgrace".
A spokesperson for the LGA, which is a council membership body representing over 300 authorities, urged Unite to accept the pay offer as fellow union GMB had.
"We are disappointed that Unite's decision to ballot its members in seven councils means all craftworkers face even more delay in receiving their long-overdue 3.2% pay award," they said.
"We again urge Unite to join with GMB in accepting the offer."
About 30 workers are involved in the dispute including those working in the housing maintenance sector, such as plumbing and heating engineering, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Graham said workers would have "Unite's full backing throughout the dispute, which is of the LGA's own making".
She said: "Craft workers who do difficult and highly skilled jobs deserve better than the LGA playing politics with their livelihoods and imposing a poor pay offer without negotiations."
Unite warned that strike action could disrupt key services involved in maintaining people's homes.
Paul Darby, Durham County Council's corporate director of resources, said it was aware "seven local authorities across the country are being balloted for targeted strike action linked to the national pay dispute".
"The ballot is expected to close on March 27, after which we'll have a clearer understanding of how we will be impacted," he said.
