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Almost 90 schools will be forced to close or cut classes during , council bosses say.

About 2,000 members of Unison are angry at Durham County Council's plan to only pay them during term time and are due to strike on 8 and 9 November.

The authority has said it is working with school governors to mitigate the impact of the stoppages on pupils.

Union officials claim some assistants could lose up to 20% of their salary under the council's proposals.

The Labour-run authority has said that "the status quo is not an option", adding it faces a risk of equal pay claims from other employees if it does not act on teaching assistants.