The threat of a summer of discontent among public services staff was confirmed today with the announcement that thousands of youth and community workers are to stage their first ever strike.
Members of the Community and Youth Workers Union in England and Wales will walk out next Tuesday after months of deadlock over wage negotiations.
The workers, who have been offered a 3% pay rise, provide activities for teenagers at youth and community centres across the country.
The union has never held a strike in its 66-year history but general secretary Doug Nicholls said he had lost patience with local authority employers.
The workers have been taking other forms of industrial action short of a striking for the last few months.
Mike Walker, director of negotiations at the Employers' Organisation for local government said: "Strike action is never helpful, it leads to service disruption. This is worse than normal industrial action because we are in the middle of negotiations. There is nothing we can do to stop it."
Today's announcement comes at a time of worsening industrial relations between employers and public service staff. Last week job centre employees took part in a two-day strike. Railway workers are also scheduled to vote on what would be the first national rail strike for years.
