Public sector union Unison today warned of possible strike action over council workers' pensions, after talks with the government reached a stalemate.
The union's general secretary, Dave Prentis, attacked plans to raise the retirement age for thousands of council workers to 65. "My members in local government are extremely angry and industrial action is now a very real possibility," he said.
"We are getting nowhere in our talks with the government, who seem intent on pushing through cuts in retirement benefits for local authority workers and making changes a year before anyone else in the public sector."
Mr Prentis added that he would be raising the union's case with ministers at next week's Labour party conference, and would "take every opportunity" to ensure that the issue was raised on the conference floor as well.
"This is not a fight our members can afford to give up when the average pension for a local government worker is just £3,800 a year," Mr Prentis said.
Unison said it was willing to talk about changes to the local government pension scheme, but only as part of an overall package that would "benefit staff" as well as employers. It rejected ministers' proposals to move ahead with changes to the pension scheme with the promise of talks later in the year on a positive agenda.
Mr Prentis said: "The government needs to hold firm, set an example and not be panicked into making decisions that will only store up trouble in the future."
He added: "Pensions are about the long term and members have paid into their pensions year in, year out. It's a pity that some councils didn't do the same, instead choosing to take pension holidays when the stock market was riding high and now panicking about shortfalls and expecting Unison members to pay the price."
The union has also called for an increase in the number of trustees on the board of the local government pension fund, to include some member trustees. It has argued that had there been member trustees on the board, the schemes would not have taken pension holidays, which have resulted in some funds falling into deficit.
