Keep out of the water says strike union
LONDON (Reuters) - The public should stay out of the sea over the Bank Holiday weekend as coastguards hold a national strike to demand more pay, a union leader said on Saturday.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, said people should not venture out to sea unless absolutely necessary during what is expected to be the busiest weekend of the summer for coastal resorts.
About 700 staff at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) will walk out from 7 p.m. on Saturday and return to work at the same time on Bank Holiday Monday.
The action involves office-based staff who co-ordinate the service, rather than rescue teams. Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) crews will operate as usual.
The MCA said people should take extra care at the seaside and sailors should "look very carefully at their plans".
The strike is the latest by public sector workers demanding higher wages to help meet rising household bills. Prime Minister Gordon Brown says pay rises must be modest to keep inflation under control.
Serwotka said coastguards, whose salaries start at 12,509 pounds, were seeking an extra 3,000 pounds a year, adding that their wages had been eroded in real terms by high inflation and low pay rises.
"Members have rightly grown angry at the scandalous refusal to pay them the same as other emergency service workers, and by the government's policy to cap public sector pay increases below inflation," he said in a statement. Continued...
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