Unite to ballot members at Manchester CC on industrial action

Unite, the largest union in the country, is to stage mass meetings of its members today and tomorrow over plans by Manchester City Council to axe 2,000 jobs.

A consultative ballot will be held next week of more than 1,000 members working for the council on whether to take industrial action over the authority’s plans to reduce its workforce by 17%.

Manchester announced the cuts on 13 January, claiming it was one of the five worst-hit councils in the country as a result of the local government finance settlement.

The Unite move is thought to be the first ballot on industrial action to take place at a local authority in response to funding cuts. The result is expected in early February.

Unite regional officer, Keith Hutson, said: “Our members are very angry at the speed and scale of the cuts in Manchester, and the severe impact it will have on services to some of the most vulnerable groups in society, and on their own livelihoods.

”Unite will give an update to the members and chart a plan of action for the way forward. We also plan to co-ordinate our actions with other trade unions and community groups.”

Unite, which has 250,000 members in the public sector, said the effect on services, such as schools, youth services, bin collections and the care of the elderly in Manchester would be felt “pretty quickly”.

Manchester City Council’s Leader, Sir Richard Leese, speaking earlier in the week, said they had no choice but to cut the jobs after changes to local authority grants left a big gap in its finances. It needs to find £110m of savings in 2011/12 – £60m more than expected.

Sir Richard said: “Because of the scale of the cuts, which originally we believed we would be able to make over four years and now we have to make in one year, we can't do that through natural turnover of staff. We have to get rid of staff very, very quickly but we are determined to do that on a voluntary basis.”

A spokesman for Manchester City Council said: “Although we recognise it will be difficult we are confident that getting the number of people to come forward is achievable and we are working very closely with the unions through this process.”

Ed Archer