Council workers in East Dunbartonshire have voted overwhelmingly for strike action over the authority's "latest instalment of austerity shame".
Three-quarters of GMB members who took part in an industrial ballot backed taking strike action, with the turnout for the vote 97%.
The union says it now has a clear legal mandate for workers delivering services such as bin collections, street cleaning and home care to down tools.
The union claimed the dispute was sparked by the local authority - which is run by a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition - cutting three days from staff annual leave and reducing redundancy benefits.
READ MORE: East Dunbartonshire left in turmoil as SNP group walks out
GMB Scotland organiser Hazel Nolan said: "Our members are sick and tired trying to make ends meet while doing more for less and this latest instalment of austerity shame is the final straw.
"The Tories and Lib Dems have rode roughshod over the recognised trade union bargaining forums and played gutter politics for the last six months to try and pick over £1 million from the pockets of their employees.
"I doubt any of them have a clue about what it's like working on the bottom rungs of local government pay nor will they understand the importance of these terms and conditions to our members and their families.
"Against the backdrop of a really unequal pay offer for Scottish local government workers this year, the message to this out-of-touch council could not be clearer: Enough is enough."
Ms Nolan said the GMB would re-enter negotiations with the council "if they recognise the vital contribution our members make to local services and step-back from this shameful cash grab on hard-pressed staff".
READ MORE: East Dunbartonshire left in turmoil as SNP group walks out
East Dunbartonshire joint leader Andrew Polson said: "The Joint Administration believes that progress can best be achieved by working with the Trades Unions and through constructive dialogue.
"While recognising the consultative ballots that GMB and other Trades Unions have run with their membership we hope to continue discussions in a constructive way.
"The Council made difficult decisions when setting the 2018/19 Budget and recognises the impact of these decisions on employees.
"It is unfortunate that the ballot results have been announced in this way and threat of strike action at this stage is ill-timed.
"We would hope that through negotiations any strike action can be avoided."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here