Angry communications workers in Tavistock are striking today in protest at what they claim is real-terms pay cuts.

A picket line of about 20 workers and their families, complete with children, waved placards and cheered as passing motorists hooted their support.

The members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents BT Group workers, lined up to comprise an official picket line with a crowd of supporters outside the BT Openreach Tavistock Exchange on Pixon Lane to demonstrate their support for their protest.

The Tavistock workers, telecom engineers and broadband services call-handlers, joined over 40,000 fellow BT Group workers in the national strike which is due to be repeated on Monday August 1.

Ian Craggs, an Openreach engineer for 36 years, said: ‘ We’ve had a lot of posititve reaction from drivers and people walking by who have asked what we’re doing and why. They’re all sympathetic and we’re surprised and encouraged by how much Tavistock people support us.’

The picket line supervisor added: ‘I think a lot of people are in the same situation, there’s a cost of living crisis, but employers aren’t always sympathetic. We didn’t have a pay rise last year, despite being key workers supporting broadband services for households throughout the pandemic and visiting people’s homes during restrictions.’

The company offered and implemented a flat-rate pay rise — a one-off £1,500 payment earlier this year which workers claim is inadequate. With inflation levels at 11.7% this is a dramatic real-terms pay cut, they say.

The strike comes after a ballot in June, which saw 30,000 Openreach engineers voting for strike action by 95.8% on a 74.8% turnout. Workers in BT, approximately 9,000 of whom work in call centres, followed suit by voting to strike by 91.5% on a 58.2% turnout.

An Openreach spokesperson said: ‘We respect the choice of our colleagues who are members of the union to strike and we’ll do everything we can to minimise any disruption and keep our customers and the UK connected during any industrial action.

‘We have tried and tested processes to help us manage impacts of reductions in available workforce, as we proved during the pandemic and we’ll continue to focus on keeping our network running, safely and effectively, as we do every day.’