Kirklees council workers vote to strike

Kirklees council, West Yorkshire, has voted to go ahead with its assault on jobs, conditions and services.

Labour is the majority but is putting itself at the forefront of implementing the Tory cuts.

The council voted to slash 1,500 jobs by March 2011 and their plans include:

• Taking sickness records into account when considering workers for employment in the new structures
• Cutting redeployment rights
• Restricting redundancy payments
• Compulsory redundancies

Kirklees Unison union members responded by voting to ballot for five days of industrial action, expected to start on 13 September. This is a fantastic and necessary response which Unison nationally is backing.

The Unite union in Kirklees has also vowed to ballot its members for action over August, which is not ideal with school holidays.

A strike committee will be put in place to organise meetings and publicity across the workforce.

Kirklees Unison also voted to join the demonstration at the Tory Party conference on 3 October in Birmingham.