Housing maintenance workers at Stoke-on-Trent City Council are being balloted for strike action following a dispute over pay.
Trade union Unite is balloting more than 1,000 members at seven local authorities following an ‘unsatisfactory’ pay offer of 3.2 per cent from the Local Government Association (LGA), which handles council workers’ pay nationally.
Unite is also opposing proposals to remove apprentices from the national red book agreement and put new entrants on the same pay scale as qualified craft operatives.
The affected workers are primarily involved in housing maintenance work, such as plumbing and heating engineering, and ‘significant’ disruption is expected if the strike goes ahead.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The way the LGA has conducted pay negotiations has been nothing short of a disgrace.
“Craft workers who do difficult and highly skilled jobs deserve better than the LGA playing politics with their livelihoods and imposing a poor pay offer without negotiations. They will have Unite’s full backing throughout this dispute which is of the LGA’s own making.”
Other councils where workers are being balloted are in Durham, Leeds, Dudley, Southwark, Newham and Bristol. The union has said more councils could follow.
Ballots will open from 19 February and close on 26 March.
