Members of Lehighton’s Borough Council and Borough Manager Mortimer Smedley spent last night plowing the streets of that borough as a result of a walkout by borough employees, shortly after a bargaining session with council and members of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees ended without settlement.

The strikers went out at 10 p.m. after a secret ballot vote was upheld. Council’s latest offer to the union calls for a 30-cent-per-hour increase in the first year and a 35-cents-per-hour hike in the second year.

AFSCME negotiator Joseph McCarthy said the employees favored a 40-cents-per-hour increase in both years.