Council workers striking over low pay have warned more disputes could follow if negotiations don't go their way.
Unison and Unite started their 48-hour walkout yesterday morning, with thousands of council staff joining picket lines across Derbyshire.
Hundreds of pupils were affected by the action, as dozens of schools closed across the county.
Both unions
have been offered a 2.45 per cent pay rise, but say this amounts to a pay cut when taking inflation into account.
Thousands
Ann MacMillan-Wood, assistant branch secretary for Unison Derbyshire County Branch, said: “We have got thousands across Derbyshire on strike because they believe in what they are doing.
“If the National Joint Council, the council employers’ side, don’t come back to negotiate a better pay rise, then future disputes will be looked at.”
Unison, the UK’s largest public sector union, is demanding a six per cent or 50p an hour wage rise after claiming its members have experienced ten years of below-inflation pay awards.
Ann, who works at Chesterfield’s St Mary’s school as a part-time kitchen assistant, added: “For people like me who only get £5.77 because the pay is pro-rata, 2.45 per cent on that is rubbish.”
“A lot of local Government public sector workers are low paid - £6 an hour is the average.”
Council offices and leisure centres closed and some refuse collections and burials were hit by the strike.
The full article contains 246 words and appears in Derbyshire Times newspaper.
