Council workers in Northern Ireland will stage a second day of a 48 hour walk-out today in a row over pay that will close schools, libraries and other local authority services.
Unison and Unite said they expected more than half a million workers to strike across the North, England, and Wales and warned further industrial action could be held unless a 2.45 per cent offer is increased.
The Local Government Association insisted that the offer was final and said any further increase would lead to a rise in council taxes or a cut in services.
The two sides clashed over how many workers supported the stoppage with employers maintaining only 100,000 had taken action, representing just 8 per cent of the total work force.
But Peter Allenson, national officer of Unite, said the threat of further strikes was “very real” adding: “What is very clear is that local government workers are angry. They are fighting to be able to afford the essentials, not the luxuries that their employers on six-figure reward packages can afford."
The industrial action has put the British government under huge pressure to change its policy on public sector pay, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown declined to make any direct comment about the dispute.
PA