DOCTORS, nurses and teachers are all threatening to go on strike in a massive row over pay.
Schools could close and hospitals be crippled as firebrand union chiefs threaten 1970s style mass industrial action.
Doctor, nurses and teachers are all threatening to go on strike in a massive row over pay[/caption]
They revolted after ministers announced below inflation pay offers to 2 million public sector workers.
Nurses, paramedics and midwives will get a £1,400 pay hike while coppers are getting a £1,900 wage bump while new teachers will get another £2,000 next year.
But it lags behind inflation, which is running at 9 per cent and predicted to rocket to an eye-watering 11 per cent within months.
Doctors and GPs had demanded a whopping 30 per cent pay rise over five years.
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But seething union chiefs branded the offer a “kick in the teeth” and threatened to unleash the biggest strikes in a generation.
Doctors warned they could down stethoscopes over the “brutal” real terms pay cut.
Philip Banfield, chairman of the British Medical Association – which represents docs – fumed: “The different groups of doctors we represent will now consider their next steps.
“But it is clear that we are on a collision course with the Government, the consequences of which will be the responsibility of ministers alone.”
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Kevin Courtney, boss of the National Education Union – the biggest teachers union – said: “We will have no hesitation in recommending that our members take action.”
He added: “Given this very poor pay proposal, we will look towards consulting our members in the autumn.
“This will be the largest ballot of teachers for a generation.
“Teachers don’t want to strike – they want to be in the classroom teaching our pupils.
“But we cannot stand by and watch the biggest real-terms decline in teacher pay this century.”
Unite boss Sharon Graham – who represents lots of NHS workers – said the offer is “a kick in the teeth”.
She added: “The so-called wage offer amounts to a massive national pay cut.
“We expected the inevitable betrayal but the scale of it is an affront.”
It came as alarming stats show pay is falling at its fastest rate since records began.
Sky-high inflation means struggling Brits actually saw their regular wages plummet by 2.9 per cent – the biggest income squeeze since records began in 2001.
The stats pile more pressure on Tory leadership candidates to spell out how they will help clobbered families.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay furiously hit back at the union bosses threatening strikes over their wages offers.
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He said the pay offer is a “fair deal”.
He added: “Very high inflation-driven settlements would have a worse impact on pay packets in the long run than proportionate and balanced increases now, and it is welcome that the pay review bodies agree with this approach.”
