Social housing maintenance workers have staged a demonstration outside Manchester Town Hall today, 15 May.

Members of union Unite began their protest at 12pm and called on the council to resolve a dispute between private contractor Mears and joint venture company Manchester Working.

Workers are taking industrial action in a dispute over their pay and conditions, which has seen some workers being paid different rates for the same amount of work. According to Unite, some pay differentials are as high as £3,500, while employees are also angry by Mears' attempts to introduce a new contract requiring staff to have greater flexibility in shift working, work longer hours, weekend working and further use technology without any real increase in pay.

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In addition, attempts by Mears to introduce a 'productivity procedure' has been labelled as 'sackers charter' and the company has been pressurising workers to accept poorer conditions regarding sick pay and vehicle policies.

Unite said tensions in the dispute have been escalated after it was discovered younger workers have received intimidatory individual communications from management to break the strike.

The striking workforce have also slammed Manchester City Council for failing to step in and solve the situation.

Unite regional co-ordinating officer, Andy Fisher, said: "The workforce believe that at any stage Manchester council could have stepped in and ended this dispute. Instead it has washed its hands of the problem.

"Rather than trying to resolve the dispute management have instead sought to intimidate members and in a deeply sinister move they are targeting younger workers.

"If there is no reasonable 11th hour offer put forward by the companies involved then tenants are going to quickly experience substantial delays in urgent repairs and planned maintenance work."

Following the initial strike today, a rolling programme of strike action will take place on Monday, Thursday and Friday of each week.

(LM/MH)