Teaching union ATL to ballot members over strike action - The Guardian

Association of Teachers and Lecturers' Mary Bousted. ATL members are to be balloted for the first time in 32 years. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

One of the most moderate teaching unions – which had previously said it would never strike – is preparing to ballot its members over plans to change their pensions, a move that could be followed by every other public sector union.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) said its members were furious about the decision to increase their contributions by 3.4%before a national review of the public sector pensions system in March, and after they have been subjected to a two-year pay freeze. The union has not balloted its members since 1979.

The TUC is meeting its 55 affiliated members on Friday to discuss co-ordinating strike action against the government's austerity measures. Pensions are one of the few issues that public sector unions could launch joint action on. By law, unions can only strike against changes to their terms and conditions, and pensions could prove to be the only common complaint.

TUC officials said there would be many "hurdles" before any co-ordinated action could be launched. But some, including the PCS civil service union, indicated that they would be calling on the TUC to lead strikes in the spring.

The Department for Education is asking teachers to agree to a 3.4% increase in their pension contributions by 2014. Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: "Members are rightly furious that the government has delayed a full valuation of the pension scheme and is now demanding that they pay more into their pensions before knowing whether this is necessary.

"And to add insult to injury, teachers and lecturers are being asked to agree these changes in February, well before Lord Hutton's review into public sector pensions reports in March."

The interim report by the former Labour minister suggested that contributions for all public sector workers should go up. The chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, will decide by how much in the spring budget.

Today the GMB union announced that more than 140,000 posts in local councils are now under threat. More than 200 councils have now entered a 90-day statutory consultation period to end a total of 140,456 jobs by either voluntary redundancies, early retirement or deleting vacant posts. The worst hit areas are the north-west, where 25,945 posts are at risk, and the West Midlands, where 20,746 are threatened.