Red Book Strike

News

Unite council workers strike over pay and conditions

Thursday, June 18th, 2026

Reading time: 4 min

Over a thousand local government craftworkers have started strike action yesterday (17 June) in a dispute over pay and attacks on their conditions.

The highly skilled workers predominantly undertake the local authority housing maintenance and repair work that keeps council tenants safe and comfortable in their homes.

But, after years of pay freezes and paltry increases, these dedicated craftworkers have downed tools in Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent, Newham, Leeds and Babergh and Mid Suffolk councils.

The dispute is a response to recent attacks on workers pay and conditions, and a result of the 2025 local government pay offer to Red Book workers (local government craftworkers).

The employer offered a paltry 3.2 per cent increase, which follows over a decade of pay freezes and below inflation increases.

However the dispute is about more than pay and is also linked to a series of attacks on the national agreement, including the removal of apprentices from the agreement and a move to job evaluation.

The local government job evaluation process is detrimental to local government craftworkers and fails to award them for their skills and abilities.

Striking craftworkers on picket lines draw support from their communities. In Bristol members of Bristol Trades Union Council offered support for council workers outside Bristol City Council’s Sandy Park depot, the Unite Community Branch in Suffolk joined picket lines and in Leeds Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East addressed striking workers.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Local government workers have had enough. Years of poor pay increases and freezes has undermined their earnings and is driving living standards down.

“The attacks on their national agreement, designed to make them even poorer in the future, is totally unacceptable.”

The strike action in June is of a targeted nature and a greater number of local authorities could join the dispute in the future.

Unite is calling for a fully structured review of the local government pay spine and for the existing agreement to be fully protected. The local government employers have refused to negotiate.

Unite national officer Jason Poulter said: “The local government employers have brought this dispute on themselves in the high handed and dismissive way they have treated proposed peace talks. Their contempt for highly skilled dedicated craftworkers has been demonstrated by their refusal to negotiate.

“The strike action will inevitably cause severe disruption to the lives of council tenants needing repairs and maintenance work. Even at this late stage the dispute can be resolved by the employers entering negotiations with realistic proposals to resolve this dispute.”