NEWS DESK

The government's relations with the trade unions will be further strained today when UNISON and UNITE members strike over new pay demands.

The unions are demanding a 4.8% pay rise and have rejected a 2.45% offer from Local government employers.

Schools, libraries, road sweepers and other council services will not be at work today, particularly affected are Barnet Council seeing eleven schools close.

The pay demands come on the back of rising inflation and the unions arguing that workers are struggling to cope with increase costs.

The strike action also threatens to put at risk the £1.5 million given by UNISON to the Labour Party with David Prentiss the unions general secretary speaking to the Daily Telegraph saying "Unison, Britain's biggest public sector union, will "leave no stone unturned" in the rethink of how it spends its members' money, Dave Prentis, its general secretary, said.""The issue is that you have a Government that believes in deregulating business and deregulating anything connected with how wealth is created for the few, and yet where we try to represent low-paid working people, we're surrounded with regulation that makes it virtually impossible."