Teaching assistants are calling on schools minister David Miliband to intervene in their pay row after two days of strikes.

Brian Strutton, the GMB national secretary, will meet with Mr Miliband in Whitehall at lunchtime on Monday and he has promised the industrial action will come top of the agenda.

The move was announced as more than 350 staff members packed into the Brighthelm Centre in North Street yesterday to debate the next stage of the strike action.

The mass meeting was held hours after a demonstration outside Brighton and Hove City Council offices.

The assistants were told a 24-hour stoppage would take place on Friday, December 10, unless a resolution was found.

Mr Strutton said: "Teaching assistants are generally the most down-trodden and abused group in schools.

"Because of the emotional blackmail and because they care so much about the delivery of education, they have tended to put up with that treatment.

"They have been regarded as a mum's army working for pin money.

"But teaching assistants in Brighton and Hove have said they are not going to put up with it any more.

"We have no doubt this dispute will be successful. The council will come back to the table or submit to binding arbitration."

Another mass demonstration and rally in the centre of Brighton is planned for January.

Both the GMB and Unison would then call a further day of strike action in the same month with leaders claiming the action could spread across the country.

Alex Knutsen, Unison branch secretary, told the audience of largely women workers that he would not see the number of weeks they were paid reduced.

He said: "We must keep the pressure on the council.

"We never set out to disrupt children's education and we wish it had never come to this.

"But the council never thought low-paid women workers like yourselves would vote for strike action, never mind take strike action.

"All you want is a decent wage, dignity and respect and this has been long overdue."

The council confirmed more than 8,000 children out of a total of 17,000 at infant, junior and primary schools in the city were affected by the strike.

The industrial action closed as many as 35 schools but officers claim the secondary sector was unaffected.

Finance councillor Simon Burgess's nine-year-old daughter and five-year-old son were both sent home for two days after their school was closed.

The full-time MP's assistant said there was simply no money left in the council coffers to meet the trade unions' claims.

He said: "My partner had to take time off work.

"I'm not cross but I am disappointed. I think there have been a lot of misunderstandings going around.

"There is no way anyone is going to come out of this a complete winner - if we go to arbitration then all our cards will be on the table.

"The trouble is we had one of the worst settlements from the Government in the country and will really struggle to avoid capping next year.

"We have got nowhere to go apart from cutting money from other vital services."

Council leader Ken Bodfish welcomed the end of the first two days of strike action but said Government ministers should not get involved.

He said: "The Government does have a role in determining the proper role of teaching assistants in the classroom.

"I would welcome Mr Miliband thinking about that but it's not the role of a Government minister to intervene in a particular dispute.

"We are looking at working with the trade unions and going to Acas for talks.

"I think the children of the city will be very pleased they can go back to school and so will their parents.

"The unions have made their point and I hope we can now get down to sensible negotiations."

Council officers have said the unions were offered arbitration by the independent Acas on November 4 but this was flatly refused by union leaders.

Schools will be open as normal on Monday as teaching assistants, teachers and their school heads try and get back to normal.

Teaching assistants have been angered by a letter by children, families and schools' director David Hawker telling parents some staff will earn more than £21,000 pro rata under the council deal.

The council confirmed to The Argus that just eight teaching assistants across the entire city have been made Grade A and will get the top rate of pay.

A council spokesman said: "The letter specifically said the biggest group of assistants would earn £13,953 and £14,931 pro rata.

"All assistants have had information stating clearly this is very small category of staff and have been told individually how much they would earn."

The Argus asked readers to vote on whether teaching assistants were right to strike. Of those who replied, 91 per cent said yes.