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Updated Sunday, June 19, 2011 0:00 am TWN, Reuters

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UK union leader warns of worst strikes since 1926

LONDON -- The leader of Britain's biggest public sector union has threatened to unleash the biggest wave of strikes in nearly 100 years to force the government to back down on planned pension reforms and deep spending cuts.

The coalition government says it must push ahead with tackling a record peacetime budget deficit or risk suffering a debt crisis similar to those seen in Greece and Ireland.

It expects about 330,000 public jobs to go as it cuts spending by 81 billion pounds (US$130.5 billion) over the next four years.

Dave Prentis, who as head of Unison represents 1.4 million public workers, said the state sector's share of the spending cuts was too big and he warned of indefinite rolling strikes to make the government soften its austerity program.

“It will be the biggest since the general strike,” Prentis said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper on Saturday. More than 3 million workers took part in the 1926 general strike in support of the coal miners' ultimately failed attempt to resist wage cuts.

Railways, docks, steelworks and many other industries were disrupted during the nine-day strike. However, its impact was blunted by months of government planning and the use of thousands of police and soldiers to keep the country moving.

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