750,000 British Public Employees
Stage 24-Hour Strike
More than 750,000 municipal workers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland went on strike July 17, shutting libraries, schools, and museums and disrupting such services as ferries and garbage collection.
Union officials declared the 24-hour walkout—the first such action by council workers since 1979—an overwhelming success and threatened further actions unless employers agreed to more talks, the London Times reported July 18. Workers later announced plans for two more strikes—one August 14 and another in September, according to a July 19 BBC report.
Unions had requested a 6% pay increase for workers, but local authorities said they couldn’t afford more than a 3% raise. “The trade union claim is substantially in excess of the rate of inflation and, if agreed, can only lead to loss of jobs and higher taxes,” read a statement issued by the Welsh Local Government Association.
Jack Dromey, national organizer for the Transport and General Workers’ Union, called on the prime minister to intervene. “The door has been firmly shut in the face of the low paid,” he said. “It is high time it was opened up.”
The government, however, gave no sign it would step in. A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said the issue is a “matter for the unions and local government to resolve,” according to a July 18 BBC report.
Posted July 22, 2002.
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