UNISON is Britain's most effective trade union, representing 1.3 million people working in the UK's public services. We negotiate better pay and conditions, help individuals in trouble and campaign for a safer, fairer society.

The Manchester Branch of UNISON supports well over 11,000 employees in Manchester City Council; from housing officers to teaching assistants, caretakers to library staff, environmental health officers to social and support workers. The Branch also represents members in the voluntary and private sector in Manchester who provide services to the public.

Latest News: Pay claim 2008

UNISON has agreed a pay claim for this year that would give more than one million local government workers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales a payrise of 6% or 50p an hour - whichever is the greater.

Nationally, UNISON said it was intended to be a 'catch up and match up' claim, to recoup losses from below-inflation pay awards since 2004 and to keep up with inflation over the coming year.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON's national secretary for local government, said: "Despite the headline figure, this is a modest claim. No-one could argue that an increase of 50p an hour fuels inflation. Over the past three years local government workers' pay has increased by less than the rate of inflation, so we are starting from a low base. We need to make sure that they catch up with the rest of the public sector and that they are cushioned against inflation over the coming year.

She added: "The government's 2% limit is just not on. It is half the rate of inflation and represents a real pay cut for loyal, hard-working public-sector workers, two-thirds of whom are women. They are struggling to make ends meet with the ever-increasing spiral of housing and fuel price rises."

UNISON is also working with other public-sector unions, through the TUC, to campaign for a fair deal for all public sector workers.

The local government employers for England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now consulting councils over their response to their pay claim, while in Scotland, an offer from the employers has been rejected by UNISON and the other local government trade unions.

The 2008 claim covers all grades of workers in local government, including refuse collection, school meals, social workers, administrators, cleaners, teaching assistants, parks and leisure workers and librarians. It would take the wages of the lowest paid workers up to £6.50 an hour - a step towards the £6.75 that poverty experts say is the minimum needed to live on.

For more information on UNISON's Catch Up and Match Up pay campaign, click on the logo below.

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Last updated: 5 March 2008