STRIKE by up to 750,000 teachers, civil servants and other public sector workers is set to go ahead after last-ditch talks with Government Ministers failed to end a bitter row over pensions and spending cuts.
Members of four trade unions will walk out for 24 hours on Thursday, closing thousands of schools in England and Wales and disrupting Government departments, courts, driving tests and job centres.
Picket lines will be mounted outside schools, colleges, universities, Parliament, courts and Government buildings such as the Treasury.
Tens of thousands of pupils in Yorkshire will be affected with the possibility of further strikes being staged after the summer holidays as well.
The National of Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and the University and College Union are striking over public sector pension reforms which they claim will make their members pay more, work longer and receive less.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union is staging its strike in a dispute over pensions, job cuts and pay.
In a joint statement after yesterday’s meeting with union leaders, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude and Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander claimed the talks had been “constructive” and urged public sector workers not to strike while negotiations were on going.
However union leaders dismissed this. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “It was disappointing that the meeting proved to be no different to any of the others – it was a farce.”
ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: “We are disappointed, but not particularly surprised that the Government has yet again refused to give us the information we need to carry out negotiations about teachers’ and lecturers’ pensions.
TUC welcomed moves by the Government to meet again next month after ministers recognised the funding basis for local government workers was different.
General Secretary Brendan Barber said progress had been made, but there was still a “major gap” between the two sides on plans to increase the pension age, raise contributions and change the way pensions are determined from retail price index (RPI) to consumer price index (CPI) inflation.
David Evans, Wales secretary of the NUT, said: “The UK Government have gone into these talks with one thing firmly in their minds – to force through changes without a proper consultation process and without providing proper information that is needed.
“That is no big surprise but the unions themselves will still remain committed to seeing if we can continue to talk.”
Unison leader Dave Prentis said they would await two further meetings in July before deciding whether to ballot for strikes.
Steve Belcher, regional organiser at Unison Cymru, said: “We are not in the dispute on Thursday but we fully support the decision to take action by other trade unions and the likelihood is we will be going down a similar route ourselves.”
University and College Union General Secretary Sally Hunt said: “The average lecturer faces an increase of around £90 a month in exchange for reduced benefits.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said pensions were “not a devolved matter and our focus is on minimising the impact of any industrial action on our public services.”
