THURROCK could be on the brink of strike action by members of the council's environmental services department who belong to the Unite union, including waste collection teams and street cleaners.

Other services could be affected and the industrial dispute could even spread across other spheres of the council's operations as a second union has declared its discontent with what it claims is an attack on workers' pay and conditions.

Unite members have been taking part in a ballot for industrial action following a breakdown of talks between the union and council management over planned changes to the terms and conditions, with new shift payments and allowance cuts being promoted by the council as a way to improve efficiency and save money. The council says this is not to the detriment of workers.

The dispute has been festering for several months, going back to November last year but Unite felt little progress was being made as an April deadline for change draws near and so balloted its members on action.

That poll concluded this week and union members have told Nub News it came back with a 'huge mandate for action'.

A union official told Nub News: "We will be deciding specific strike dates this week."

An official statement from Unite is not expected until after the weekend.

As well as the clear upset among Unite members, members of the GMB union, who include care workers, are also very angry about the proposed changes, as reported on Thurrock Nub News last week.

Thurrock Council has consistently declared that the Unite position is based on flawed evidence and that it is not seeking to change its members pay and conditions for the worse.

In February it called on Unite to abandon its threat of action and return to the negotiating table. Those pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears.