EAST Lancashire youth workers are due to join the first ever national strike by youth workers tomorrow.

Community and Youth Workers Union members are taking action over pay and conditions.

Youth workers employed by Blackburn with Darwen Council will demonstrate all day outside the council offices on Jubilee Street, Blackburn.

Union members, who have been involved in pay talks since July 2003, are furious at the lack of local government youth work spending and the discrepancy between pay offered to newly qualified teachers and youth workers -- a gap of almost £3,500 a year.

Blackburn with Darwen Branch secretary and youth worker Tony Parkinson said: "New people who come to us and say they are interested in working with young people are starting at the bottom end of the scale and we are finding it hard to recruit new staff because we don't pay them enough money.

"The demands of the job are not matched by the pay and conditions.

"The purpose of our demonstration is to draw attention to the situation and put pressure on the employers to show a more serious attitude and come up with a realistic package that might form the basis of a settlement."

The union hopes to discourage workers from going in to work but says it will not interfere with anyone who wants to work during the strike.