Thousands of workers for BT and Openreach are to strike on Friday in a dispute over pay. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said it would be the biggest ever strike among call centre workers and the first national telecoms strike since 1987.
Another strike will take place on Monday after union members voted for industrial action in protest over a £1,500 pay rise. It comes as the telecoms giant revealed its first sales growth for five years on Thursday, having benefited from price increases for customers earlier this year.
BT said it had also been boosted by more people signing up for fibre-optic broadband and strong trading in its Openreach network business. It told shareholders that revenues increased by 1% to £5.1 billion for the three months to June 30.
