Navy support workers to strike

Hundreds of workers at the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) are to go on strike at the end of the month in the bitter row over public sector pensions.

The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said more than 600 of its members at the RFA, which supports and services the Navy, will walk out on March 28.

Other unions are expected to announce support for a strike on the same day following last year's stoppage by more than one-and-a-half million public sector workers in protest at the Government's controversial reforms.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "RMT members on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the service that supplies the Royal Navy fleet around the world in times of both war and peace, will be standing shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of thousands of other public service workers on March 28.

"We will be sending the clearest message to the Government that we will defend our pensions to the hilt and the demand that our members should work longer, pay more and get less will be thrown back in the faces of this Government of millionaire public schoolboys.

"It's the bankers and the bosses who have gambled with our country's future and the men and women who provide the lifeline services to the Royal Navy fleet should not have to tolerate a worse pension and be forced to work longer to make up for their mistakes."

Leaders of the two biggest teachers' unions have rejected the reforms and vowed to continue their campaigns of opposition.

The National Union of Teachers said consultation among its members showed "strong support" for its campaign, including the possibility of further industrial action, while the NASUWT also continued to reject the Government's final plans and said it would carry on its campaign of action short of a strike.

Leaders of the Public and Commercial Services union will meet next week to decide their next move in the dispute.