(UK) Unions set to back public sector strikes

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Source: The Guardian

Britain's three largest trade unions are set to back strike action by public sector workers on 30 November after teaching assistants, refuse collectors and nurses at the GMB voted for walkouts over pension reform, with members of Unite expected to follow on Thursday.

Up to 300,000 GMB members will join local government and NHS staff at Unison, the largest public sector union, in the biggest bout of industrial action in decades when more than two million people could take part. Unite is also expected to confirm a yes vote in a ballot of 150,000 workers after voting closed, in a move that would see the biggest powers in the labour movement swing behind mass walkouts and protests.

The GMB's national officer for public services, Brian Strutton, said: "It is now clear that millions of workers will be protesting on 30 November at the government's attack on jobs and pensions."

Strutton added that the government had in effect conceded it had got pension reform "wrong" after offering concessions in recent talks. "It is not too late for the government to pull back from this confrontation and scrap this attack on pensions," he said.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/16/unions-public-sector-strikes