On Thursday 10th July schools are set to be shut, national and local government council offices closed down and fire stations empty as up to one and a half million public sector workers go on strike against the ConDem Government's 1% pay offer, attacks on pensions and huge workloads.
Public sector workers' wages have dropped by 16% since 2010, and speaking on behalf of striking local government workers, UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis explained…
"These workers care for our elderly, clean our streets, feed and educate our school children and keep our libraries running, but they receive no recognition in their pay packets. They are mainly low paid women workers, stressed and demoralised, and they deserve better from their employers and from this Government. This is the group that has borne the brunt of the Government's austerity agenda."
John Lewis, UNISON North West's head of local government added:
"A decent pay rise for local government and school support staff is long overdue. People are really struggling on poverty pay. A pay rise is affordable and much of the cost would be re-couped in higher tax revenues and lower benefit payments. A pay rise would also benefit local economies as it would boost spending in local shops.
"People don't go on strike lightly but our members see no alternative to taking action now.
This will be the biggest day of industrial action in the public sector in living memory. It shows that there is a groundswell of opinion that people have had enough of austerity and are not prepared to tolerate it any longer. There is a need for proper funding of our public services and fair pay for working people."
In Salford, picket lines will be in place outside local and national government buildings, fire stations and schools, before a huge rally takes place at Piccadilly Gardens from 12:30pm-1:30pm. There's also a Big Strike Rally at the Civil Justice Centre 11am-11:30am followed by a march to the Piccadilly Rally.
In Bolton there's a rally outside the Town Hall from 10:30am-12:30pm.
The firefighters will be joining the dispute before starting their own eight days of consecutive action from the 14th to 21st July. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: "The government must realise that firefighters cannot accept proposals that would have such devastating consequences for their futures, their families' futures, and the future of the fire and rescue service itself.
"We have tried every route available to us to make the government see sense over their attacks" he explained "Three years of negotiations have come to nothing because the government is simply unwilling to compromise or even listen to reason despite a huge amount of evidence showing their planned scheme is unworkable.
"Shorter strike periods have illustrated the strength of feeling amongst firefighters whilst limiting disruption to the fire service, the public and our members' working lives" he added "But the government is merely ploughing ahead, forcing firefighters to react."
For more details on the one day strike see the facebook event page
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