COASTGUARD bosses said it would be business as usual even if its union staff failed to turn up to work.
Dozens of Maritime and Coastguard Agency staff belonging to the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) and Prospect unions will be among those joining the national strike.
An MCA spokesman said continuity plans were in place for walkouts, including cover for the shifts that could be hit at its rescue co-ordination centre at Lee on Solent, where around 30 staff are employed.
Around 300 staff are based at the MCA’s head office in Commercial Road, Southampton. Rescue teams are contracted out and would be unaffected, a spokesman said.
The walkout comes as the Department for Transport announced that the Lee on Solent centre and two others on the south cost would close by 2015 and a mothballed regional fire control centre would finally open as an MCA operations centre, employing 96 people.
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