Strike prompted by bitter pay dispute
After eleven weeks of heavy tensions and strike, Unison union members voted Monday morning to accept a revised offer from the Leeds City Council. The strike began on September 7th, in a dispute over pay cuts proposed by the City Council. Both sides remained unyielding throughout October, with the City Council refusing to negotiate while the strike continued, and the union members refusing to accept the pay cuts from the original agreement. In late October, a first revision of the original contract was presented to the union, and voted down in a landslide - 92%. In the ninth week of the strike, talks began again, with City council members meeting in person with union officials. By that time, over 100 desperate strikers had returned to work, and some Leeds residents reported that their trash had not been picked up in two months. The City Council's second revision was accepted today in a secret ballot.
See "Strike prompted by bitter pay dispute", Louise Hosie, BBC News Online, November 22, 2009