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UNI Global Union stands in solidarity with staff at the Bank of England are holding a three day strike at the bank.  

Members of the UK’s largest union, Unite, held a demonstration outside the bank’s London office at 8.15 am today to mark the start of a historic strike over pay. The Labour shadow chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell will attend the picket line to show his support for the strike. 

Bank staff will be wearing masks of Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England and holding placards and flags reading – ‘Bank of England staff want fair pay’. The strike is the first strike at the iconic bank in over 50 years. 

The union has called on the governor of the bank, Mark Carney to personally intervene to settle this long-running dispute for the sake of the stability of the bank and the interests of its committed workforce. 

The dispute centres on the derisory pay settlement that the bank has imposed upon staff without the agreement of the recognised union Unite. Staff are angry that they have been given a below inflation pay offer for the second year running.  The imposed pay award means up to one third of the staff will get no pay rise in 2017 whatsoever. 

Unite London and Eastern regional secretary Peter Kavanagh said: “The governor of the Bank of England must take responsibility for the fact that his dedicated workforce is today having to make their concerns heard from a picket line.  

“The result of the bank’s failure to negotiate with staff is that the Bank of England now faces its first strike action in over 50 years.  

“Unite members from the maintenance, parlours and security departments have been left with no choice but to take industrial action because they are facing another year of having to endure a pay cut imposed upon them. 

“Mark Carney should come to the picket lines outside this iconic British bank today and explain why hardworking men and women deserve to face years of pay cuts. They are struggling to pay their bills and feed their families because the bank has unjustly imposed a below inflation or zero pay rise. 

“Unite is calling on the Bank of England to come back to the negotiating table to discuss a fair pay deal for the employees. Unite is prepared to talk and to reach a fair settlement.” 

Unite members at the Bank of England working in the maintenance, parlours and security departments will be taking three days of strike action on 1, 2 and 3 August 2017. If the bank fails to resolve the pay dispute the union will be consulting its members across other departments of the bank as part of the escalation plan. 

Follow the strike on Twitter using hashtag #BankStrike  

ENDS 

For further information contact Saba Edwards: 07768 693 953. 

Notes to editors: 

Unite is Britain and Ireland’s largest trade union with over 1.4 million members working across all sectors of the economy. The general secretary is Len McCluskey.