Having recently won large wage increases for the 1.4 million employees of Britain?s local government councils (see WIT for Au. 6, 2002), British unions Unison, TGWU and GMB are pushing private employers, who contract with the government to provide public-sector services, to match the raise. The general union GMB has informed contractors that it will ballot its private-sector government members on strike action if matching raises are not forthcoming, and the Transport and General Workers Union has also stated that it is determined to win raise parity for the 600,000 contractor-employed government workers nationwide. Officers of public-sector union Unison are still discussing the matter with members, but have made it clear that they also plan action on the issue raise and other differentials in the ?two-tier? government workforce created by the use of private contractors.
