A SUMMER of discontent could begin next week with strike action expected to close hundreds of schools and disrupt government offices across the region.

More than 100 schools in the North-East and North Yorkshire have cancelled all or some of their lessons on Thursday.

Staff at 16 North-East colleges and three universities will join the walkout.

Members of the National Union of Teachers, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, and University and College Union voted to strike earlier this month in response to Government plans to reform their pensions.

The teachers and lecturers will be joined by civil servants from the Public and Commercial Services union.

The union has about 25,000 members in job centres, courts, driving test centres, ports and government agencies throughout the region.

Unions chiefs say the Government is asking their members to “work longer, pay more and receive less”.

They say an agreement reached in 2006 meant pensions were sustainable.

Plans for a new “career average pay scheme” are unacceptable, they say.

The reforms were last night branded as “robbery” by Simon Elliott, northern regional secretary of the PCS union.

He said: “There is no need to make any increase in pension contribution in order to pay for public sector pensions.

“The reality is that the additional contributions, which will equate to a day’s pay a month, are going straight into the Treasury’s coffers. People are being robbed of their pensions to pay for the deficit and recession which they didn’t create in the first place.”

Mr Elliott added: “This action is likely to be increased over the summer and into the autumn with more unions joining us.” Ian Grayson, NUT national executive member for Tyne and Wear, said teachers’ current pension package was fair and reasonable.

“These changes are not about making pensions more affordable – they are about paying off the public debt resulting from the banking sector’s recession. We feel that this not acceptable.”

If talks about pension reforms do not go their way, public sector unions could plan a wave of industrial action stretching into the autumn.

Staff at Teesside, Sunderland and Northumbria universities will be among those taking part in the walkout on Thursday, along with colleges including Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Cleveland College of Art and Design.

However, many students have now left for their summer break and the disruption is expected to be minimal.

The PCS strike will affect the Student Loans Company and the Independent Safeguarding Authority, in Darlington, as well as the passport office in Durham and the region’s Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs offices.

Union leaders are planning joint rallies in Newcastle and Middlesbrough, after manning the picket lines.

The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, yesterday called on those teachers left on Thursday to introduce supersized classes, drop the traditional curriculum and introduce flexible timetables to make sure children remained in school.

In a letter to schools, he insisted industrial action over proposed pensions reforms were unjustified and would jeopardise pupils’ education.

Mr Gove said he was particularly concerned that school closures would affect working families and single parents.

He told teachers: “My view is that we all have a strong moral duty to pupils and parents to keep schools open, and the Government wants to help you achieve that.”