A UNION took its protest against a £25m school refurbishment project to Huddersfield Town Hall.
Members of the local government union Unison lobbied councillors and passers-by on the steps at the start of a Kirklees Council meeting.
The union is opposed to a decision to award a contract for new special schools to contractors Jarvis.
Unison spokesman Mike Forster said the announcement had been greeted with incredulity by parents, teachers and unions.
He accused Jarvis of a catalogue of bad work in another contract to refurbish 20 mainstream schools in Kirklees.
Mr Forster told councillors: "Work at every school but two over-ran and four heads formally complained.
"The time pupils missed at the schools totalled a whole term's education."
The new contract for special schools was defended by council deputy leader Clr John Smithson.
He said he did not deny there had been complaints.
But he added: "There are bound to be some problems in a scheme of that scale.
"The reality is that without linking with Jarvis in the Private Finance Initiative scheme we would not have been able to do this work at all."
