Politics may be a dirty game but it will get even filthier when cleaners at Britain's Houses of Parliament in London go on a strike announced Monday by union officials.
The 140 cleaners are to down mops on November 9 in their campaign for an increase on their 5.20 pounds (7.60 euros, 9.20 dollars) per hour pay rate.
They want 6.70 pounds an hour plus pensions and sick pay. Cleaners staged a 24-hour walk-out in July which left parliamentarians faced with the prospect of scrubbing their own toilets.
The Transport and General Workers Union said the parliamentary authorities had snubbed meetings to try to resolve the dispute.
TGWU deputy general secretary Jack Dromey said: "In today's democracy it seems inconceivable that unelected, privileged civil servants are blocking attempts by parliamentarians to get their cleaners a living wage. "We have been overwhelmed with support by MPs and Lords but the stubborn refusal of the parliamentary authorities to act has led our members to decide they have no alternative but to mount picket lines outside parliament once more.