Strike over pay could escalate

Rally by Unison members outside Queen Elizabeth Hall.

A LEADING teaching union has threatened to join council staff on future walkouts.

UNISON warned that more strikes could be on the way if the Government refuses to heed its demands for better pay for council staff and local representatives from the National Union of Teachers (NUT) have not ruled out joining them in future action.

The threat came as representatives from the NUT, though not striking themselves, joined Unison pickets at a rally outside the Queen Elizabeth Hall during the first of two days of national strike action yesterday to show their support for the walkout.

Oldham NUT branch secretary, Bryan Beckingham, said: “We stand side by side with Unison members and would consider going on strike with them in the future.”

“Just as we went on strike against our 2.4 per cent pay offer in April, so we support the rights of the many Unison members who work alongside our members in schools to protest against their derisory pay offer.

“With inflation running at 4.6 per cent (the Government’s figure is 3.8 per cent) the 2.4 per cent offer amounts to a pay cut and many Unison members are paid much less than teachers, so their pay offer is even more insulting.”

In a clear indication that more chaos could be on the way, Unison regional operations manager Steve Stott warned that members are prepared to do whatever it takes to improve their below inflation pay offer.

He said: “We have a mandate to take this as far as we have to and we are not ruling anything out. Nobody wants more strikes, but we will take it as far as we need to.

“Future strikes could bring services to a standstill and we would also consider shutting down entire council departments down at different times.”

Catering, cleaning and highways were affected on the first day of the strike, as a quarter of Unison and Unite members took action, while 28 of the borough’s 109 schools closed.

The impact was also felt in adult and community services, which lost a quarter of its staff to the walkout.

But libraries and leisure facilities were all open and the council said that most central services were unaffected.

Mr Stott added: “It’s not greed, it’s about asking for a decent living wage and the support from the public of Oldham has been tremendous.