Wide Strike in Britain Planned

UK Unions to Back Public Workers' Strikes

Nurses at the GMB have voted for walkouts over pension reform. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Britain's three largest trade Unions are set to back Strike action by public sector Workers on 30 November after teaching assistants, refuse collectors and nurses at the GMB voted for walkouts over pension reform, with members of Unite expected to follow on Thursday.

Up to 300,000 GMB members will join local government and NHS staff at Unison, the largest public sector union, in the biggest bout of industrial action in decades when more than two million people could take part. Unite is also expected to confirm a yes vote in a ballot of 150,000 workers after voting closed, in a move that would see the biggest powers in the labour movement swing behind mass walkouts and protests.

The GMB's national officer for public services, Brian Strutton, said: "It is now clear that millions of workers will be protesting on 30 November at the government's attack on jobs and pensions."

Strutton added that the government had in effect conceded it had got pension reform "wrong" after offering concessions in recent talks. "It is not too late for the government to pull back from this confrontation and scrap this attack on pensions," he said.
The GMB, which has members in the NHS, civil service and local governmentthroughout the UK, said members voted by more than four to one in favour of strike action with a turnout of 33%, similar to Unison's. It declined to reveal how many people were balloted.
Ucatt, which represents workers who maintain and repair buildings, also urged the government to water down its pension proposals and head off strikes as it announced that more than 3,400 members had backed strikes.

On Friday the NASUWT teachers' union will announce the result of a strike ballot for 227,500 teachers in England and Wales. Last week members of the National Association of Head Teachers voted for strike action over pension plans – the first strike vote in the union's 114-year history – raising the possibility of thousands of schools closing on 30 November. More than 20 unions could take industrial action, although the government is still in talks over reforms to pensions for public sector workers in the fields of education, health, the civil service and local government.

The government is proposing to raise the retirement age and increase employee contributions, while switching the uprating of pensions from the higher RPI rate of inflation to the lower CPI rate. However, a recent offer of concessions included raising the accrual rate – a measure of the rate at which pensions grow – and pledging that anyone within 10 years of retirement from 1 April next year would not see a reduction in their pension pot. Government sources have also indicated that a day of mass action will not jeopardise further talks.

Meanwhile, NHS Employers, which represents major care providers such as hospitals,has
warned NHS staff that they would "poison the working atmosphere" inside the health service and "ruin" years of harmonious industrial relations by striking on 30 November.
Dean Royles, its director, adopted his toughest stance yet on the Day of Action when he spoke to 500 NHS bosses at the organisation's annual conference in Liverpoolon Wednesday. He also increased the temperature by highlighting the potentially damaging effect of strike action on patients.

"More yes-votes would be a further disappointment for the NHS and patients, and it's very likely industrial action would mean delays and distress for patients who need treatment," he said. "Whatever the rights and wrongs of this dispute – and whatever does or does not happen on 30 November – I want all parties involved to recognise that we have benefited from a very positive industrial relations climate, built on partnership working, in the NHS for many years. This has served our patients, our staff and employers really well.

"We must work together to preserve it. None of us would want anything to ruin it. Whether you agree with industrial action or whether you don't, we all know that even one day of strike action can poison the working atmosphere. We must come together, work together and find solutions together, locally and nationally, on behalf of our patients to ensure there is a positive working environment beyond 30 November."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said it urged NHS staff to "think carefully about the effect on patients of any action they may be considering. Pensions are important to everyone – but patients should come first". Ministers' recent concessions on future public sector pensions meant that "the NHS pension will remain one of the very best available, providing a guaranteed pension level for all employees".

The NHS has contingency plans to ensure that patients' quality of care is not affected on 30 November, which will see suitably-qualified staff redeployed to cover for those on strike, she added.