Strike fear adds to pressure on police during 2012 Games

POLICE in Yorkshire already faced with losing hundreds of officers to the Olympics next year are also having to make contingency plans should their civilian staff go on strike during the Games.

As many as 1,000 officers could be required to go to London to form the UK’s largest ever peacetime policing operation, with more than 10,000 needed.

Now, as unions undertake the first national industrial action ballot for a decade, it has emerged that the region’s constabularies are preparing for possible strikes during the Games.

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A South Yorkshire Police Authority report to be considered at a meeting on Friday, states: “Whilst no strike action over the period has been identified, during the Olympic and Paralympic period there is the potential for this to occur and to affect South Yorkshire Police internally as well as the policing of any such protests.

“The likelihood of such action is being closely monitored and built into the plans to maintain South Yorkshire Police core services, event management and specialist Olympic and Paralympic provision throughout the periods and events identified above.”

Last week the escalating row over the Government’s planned changes to public sector pensions saw the teaching union NASUWT become the latest to hold a strike ballot, threatening the biggest outbreak of industrial unrest on November 30 since the 1979 Winter of Discontent.

The move follows a vote by members of Unison, the biggest public sector union, to take industrial action, with its members, ranging from school dinner ladies and refuse collectors to social workers and NHS staff, backing a campaign of action by 245,358 votes to 70,253, in a 29 per cent turnout.

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A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: “Although preparations for the Olympics in 2012 remains at an early stage, contingency plans will be in place to cover all eventualities.”

And a spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: “There are no specific plans at the moment as officially a day of strikes has not been confirmed.

“However we are mindful that strike action is a possibility and will respond accordingly.”

Yorkshire’s four constabularies have warned that officers not travelling to the Games are already facing longer hours with fewer rest days. The forces, already hit by Government funding cuts, are set to suspend all training and put tighter restrictions on leave.