The summer, autumn, winter of discontent

“Unions prepare ground for wave upon wave of strikes,” headlines The Times, after Unison, the country’s largest public sector union, announced that 1.2 million of its members were “on the road to industrial action”. The strikes against the government’s pension changes, job, pay and service cuts will be biggest in a generation, affecting councils, the National Health Service (NHS) and schools, the London daily writes. Under PM David Cameron’s Big Society, which seeks to dismantle the role of the big state, some 500,000 local authority posts will be eliminated over the next three years, as will 600,000 other private sector jobs, according to Unison. The union also says that more than 66,000 council jobs have already vanished, with an additional 172,000 at the risk of being cut. The first massive day of action is pencilled for June 30, with a ballot for more action in July. “Ministers are drawing up emergency plans to protect hospital services amid fears that doctors will join”, The Times notes.