Council staff are being asked to go on strike in an attempt to improve a 1% pay offer.
Public services union Unison will ballot 75,000 members across the 32 local authorities in Scotland.
Stephanie Herd, who leads the union’s local government committee, said members are angry at receiving the “miserly” offer after two years of a pay freeze.
“Over this period the value of their pay has gone down by nearly 13%, while the cost of food and heating has soared,” she said.
“Council staff work hard delivering quality public services. They are overstretched after more than 34,500 local government jobs have gone. They are underpaid, and they see the wealthiest people in this country getting ever-richer.
“Our members deserve fair pay and we believe they will vote yes for strike action to put pressure on the employers to improve the offer.”
The union’s local government membership includes cooks, cleaners, classroom assistants, housing staff, library workers and social workers.
The ballot will run from July 3 to August 13 with a proposal, if members vote yes, of a minimum of three days of strikes over a seven-week period in autumn.
Two of these would be national one-day strikes and there would be rolling one-day strikes around the country. Selective action is also being considered, the union said.