COUNCIL workers will stage their first national strike since the 1979 Winter of Discontent after voting to take action over pay.
Schools, leisure centres, housing and environmental services will be hit by the 24-hour stoppage on July 17.
Members of three unions, representing workers ranging from school caretakers to social workers, voted in favour of strikes in protest at a three per cent pay offer.
Unison, the biggest union, said its members voted by 56 per cent in favour, while members of the Transport and General Workers' Union and the General Municipal Boilermakers (GMB) both voted by 66 per cent in favour.
Unions are seeking a six per cent or £1,750 pay rise to bring the minimum wage in local government to £11,017 a year.
Unison national officer Heather Wakefield, said: "Our members have voted for industrial action because they are sick of being treated as the poor relations of the public sector."
July 9, 2002 12:00
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