Unions pledge strike ballot over Shropshire pay cuts

Thursday 7th July 2011, 2:00PM BST.

Union leaders today vowed to push ahead with a ballot for strike action as a row with Shropshire Council over a pay cut intensified.

The executive committee of Unison held a three-and-a-half hour meeting yesterday.

It came after 6,500 employees at the unitary authority were told they would lose their jobs unless they agree to a 5.4 per cent pay cut.

Letters have been sent by the authority to all employees stating they will be dismissed on September 30 but will be re-hired on October 1 if they agree to the cut and new terms and conditions.

Alan James, Shropshire branch secretary for Unison which represents about 40 per cent of the workforce at the authority, today said: “We now have a clear mandate to ballot for industrial action. The feeling among members was to strike rather than anything else at this stage. I actually feel sick. We don’t want to strike, nobody wants to strike and it’s a last resort.”

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