Local schools may be disrupted as Trade Union activists plan to down tools and take strike action this Thursday.

Unison’s Ceredigion County Branch has responded to recent statements made by Cabinet Minister Frances Maude that the government intends to continue with its policy of public sector pay restraint for the next four years.

On Thursday Trade Unions will be stepping up their campaign for fair and reasonable pay award with the first of a series of co-ordinated strike actions that could involve up to two million local government workers.

Unison Ceredigion County Branch Secretary Owain Davies said: “Pay for council workers has fallen by 18% in real terms over the life of the coalition government, which has created real hardship for many of my branch’s members and their families. If Mr Maude were to get his way and these pay restraint policies were to continue we would be looking at council workers pay almost halving over the space of just 10 years.

“In a rural area like Ceredigion public sector pay often acts as a benchmark for the private sector, and these significant drops in wages have already seen downward pressure on wages across the board in Ceredigion.

He added: “Our members have been forced into taking industrial action in order to defend our pay, our jobs, and the services that we provide to the public, they will be asking what our local Liberal Democrat MP Mark Williams has done, and will be doing, to reverse this concerted attack upon the living standards of such a large percentage of his constituents.”

Carmarthenshire schools which will be closed on Thursday include Saron and Ysgol y Ddwylan.

For more information visit www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk.