Unite members at Wrexham Council to stage two weeks of strike action

Staff at Wrexham Council are set to stage two weeks of industrial action after members of Unite voted to strike over a “poor pay offer”.

Unite, the UK’s leading union, announced that its members in three Welsh local authorities will begin taking strike action from Monday 4 September.

The first stage of industrial action will involve Unite members at both Cardiff and Wrexham Councils who will start continuous strike action until September 17.

Locally the strike action will begin on the same day Wrexham plays host to Tour of Britain. However it is not yet known if the strikes will impact the council’s involvement in the event.

They will be joined by workers at Gwynedd Council who will strike from September 11 to September 17.

It comes after members of the union overwhelmingly rejected the local authority employers’ pay offer of £1,925.

The deal has been described as “a poorer offer than last year”, despite the cost-of-living crisis having worsened.

Unite has members across every department within Welsh Local Authorities. However strike action will have a major impact on refuse collections and recycling centres, in particular.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Welsh council workers are on the frontline providing vital services to communities across Wales. It is simply unacceptable that workers have been forced onto the breadline due to years of real terms pay cuts.”

“Unite never takes a backward step in supporting its members and is dedicated to enhancing their jobs, pay and conditions. Unite will be providing its local authority members with its complete support.”

Peter Hughes, Unite Wales Regional Secretary said; “The current pay offer to Welsh council workers is a slap in the face and would see pay levels further eroded.

“Our members provide essential services day in day out and deserve better.”

The union has also warned that further industrial action could take place during the autumn months if a better pay deal is not put forward.

A spokesperson for Wrexham Council said: “The Council was notified on 18 August, that Unite intends to take industrial action as they had met the legal threshold.

“This arises out of the NJC national pay negotiations and this is not unique to Wrexham, Unite previously published the list of other Councils.

“The industrial action notice is as follows: Unite the Union intends to call upon our members employed by your organisation save for those in school workplaces (where your organisation is responsible for schools and employs those working in schools) to take part in discontinuous strike action commencing at 00:01 hours on 4 September 2023 and continuing each day up to 17 September 2023 when the action will conclude at 23:59 hours.

“The Council has preparations underway to consider the impact on specific services with Unite members.

“Due to the numbers involved, we expect this to be isolated in those services with a higher proportion of members, at this stage we don’t know the full impact as work continues to assess this and further updates will be provided.”