UNION leaders are urging striking staff to actively support industrial action.
Sarah Taylor, Unison’s Flintshire County branch secretary,believes striking workers should join the planned demonstrations tomorrow in a dispute over pensions rather than just treat it as an extra day off to go Christmas shopping.
The national day of industrial action will bring with it school closures and major disruption to public services. As local authorities and members of the public organise contingency plans to deal with the fallout, teachers and civil servants across the county are preparing for the biggest walk-out in decades.
Mrs Taylor wants to see as many strikers as possible taking part in the 10.30am rally at County Hall and the march from there to the Farmfoods car park on Chester Road to make sure their argument is heard as loudly as possible.
She said: “We want the public to appreciate that we’re not doing this lightly. We’re standing up for what’s right.
“Everybody should come out and express their concerns – we voted in favour of industrial action in the ballot and now we should stand by that decision.
“We need to remember why we’re doing this and make sure the public understand.”
Members of Unite, Unison, GMB and teachers’ unions including NASUWT will be marching together and Mrs Taylor is hopeful about eight different unions will be represented potentially bringing in up to 1,000 members.
“It’s hard to predict how many will turn out but we have 3,000 Unison members across Flintshire so it could be into the thousands.
“The workers are responsible too, not just the union officials, we need to show that we’re united and all behind it together so people know it’s not just a token gesture.
“We have to make a stand against the Government’s unfair demands and hopefully we’ll galvanise support from the public along the way.”