Reuters/London
Britain’s biggest civil service union yesterday said its members would join teachers and hold industrial action this month, meaning some 750,000 public sector workers will strike over the government’s pension reforms. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, also said that unless the government changed its plans for public sector pensions, millions of workers could take action later this year.Unions, angry at the government’s massive spending cuts to address a budget deficit of around 10% of GDP, have vowed to stage co-ordinated national action in what would be Britain’s worst labour stoppages for decades.“The ballot mandate from our members is that we will take national strikes with other unions and we believe this will be the first of a number of those,” Serwotka told reporters.The PCS said 250,000 workers had voted to hold a 24-hour walkout on June 30, joining two big teaching unions which announced on Tuesday that members had voted for a strike.“Schools will be shut, job centres closed, driving licences won’t be issued, queues will form at airports and ports,” Serwotka said. “There will not be any person in the UK that will not see the effectiveness of this action.”The dispute centres on plans to reform public sector pensions, which the government say have become financially unsustainable because people are living longer. Ministers also argue they are also unfair to private sector workers, who retire later and receive lower benefits.Unions say the plans will mean people will have to work longer and pay more for worse pensions, which will be based on average career earnings rather than final salaries.The move also comes on top of widespread public sector job losses and a two-year pay freeze.Dave Prentis, head of the Unison union, has warned about 1.2mn of his members in schools, councils and the health service could down tools later this year and Serwotka said they were discussing action with Britain’s largest union Unite.“The government should understand that this is going to grow and grow. None of us want to be here in October talking about 4mn people on strike,” Serwotka said. The coalition government has said it is putting contingency plans together to deal with any widespread strikes and has hinted that it would consider tougher new union laws.