Unions threaten UK-wide strikes

14 September 2011 Last updated at 05:28 ET

Britain is facing the threat of mass walkouts by public sector workers after the biggest unions announced strike ballots over pensions.

Unison and Unite will consult members about co-ordinate industrial action starting in November, with the Fire Brigades Union also holding a vote.

Unison’s leader Dave Prentis told the TUC’s annual conference the action would involve the “fight of our lives”.

But the government said widespread action would leave the public “angry”.

Ministers are seeking increases in pension contributions from next April, while millions of workers continue to face a pay freeze.

‘Can win’

Proposing a motion calling for mass strikes to the TUC conference, in London, Mr Prentis said: “We’ve had enough. We’ve been patient, co-operative and we must say enough is enough.

“If we don’t say it now, they [the government] will be back for more and more and more again.

“We will engage with them… but if they impose change by diktat, we will take industrial action.”

He added: “It’s the fight of our lives. I know it’s an over-used cliché, but make no mistake, this is it.”

Mr Prentis, who won a standing ovation from the 300 TUC delegates, was followed by series of other union representatives, who backed the action.

Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite, said: “When the coalition came to power we knew we faced the fight of our lives. We knew they would seek to weaken and divide us.

“While we will never walk away from talks, neither can we sit on our hands. We will support days of action and tactical selective action.”

Public and Commercial Services Union general secretary Mark Serwotka also supported action by “millions” of people, adding: “Marching together we can win.”

The Fire Brigades Union announced the first step towards balloting its 43,000 members, raising the threat of industrial action with no Army Green Goddess military cover.

Firefighters last took national strike action in 2003, when Green Goddesses were used as emergency cover, but the ageing military vehicles have since been taken out of service.

The TUC’s executive also supports strike action over pensions.

Unions and the government have been in talks over contribution rises since the beginning of the year.

‘Disappointed and angry’

The coalition argues that rises in employees’ payments are fair and will make schemes sustainable despite an ageing population.

Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude, who is leading the pension negotiations for the government, said: “The unions’ own members want to be going to work. They don’t want to give up a day’s pay at a time when we are all of us working under constraints.

“Unions need to think about the effect on the public and the damage that will be done to public sympathy for the public sector.”

Mr Maude said talks over pensions had made “some progress” since they started nine months ago, but unions needed to demonstrate “proper engagement”.

Widespread strikes would leave the public “disappointed and angry”, he added.

Labour leader Ed Miliband was heckled at the TUC conference on Tuesday when he told unions that a one-day strike in June over pensions had been a “mistake” and urged them to continue the talks with the government.

The conference ends on Wednesday.

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