A union boss has hit out at the “failures at all levels of government” as local authority workers vote on strike action amid an ongoing pay dispute.
GMB Scotland’s comments come in response to a 2% pay increase offer against all council pay grades for 2022/23.
Almost 10,000 workers across waste and cleansing and school and early years services will be asked if they back the strikes in the face of a Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) pay offer.
Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser, hit out at the offer which amounts to less than £10 a week for staff earning under £25,000 per year.
The union wrote to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes last week seeking urgent talks and warned about the consequences for council workers of significant below inflation pay amid the cost-of-living crisis.
In the joint letter, signed by UNISON, Unite and GMB, Ms Sturgeon and Ms Forbes were told industrial action “would close schools across the country and see waste piling up on the streets” if a resolution was not reached.
The ballot begins on Monday and runs until Tuesday, July 29, and comes after the Scottish Government’s spending review which forecasted a real-terms cut in local authority funding.
Mr Greenaway said: “Council workers and the vital services they deliver are firmly in the sights of Kate Forbes’ cuts agenda, and if left unchallenged the lowest paid will pay the price in the biggest cost-of-living crisis for 40 years.
“This is what years of failure at all levels of government looks like – a decade of failed austerity, the passing on of cuts to communities, and a meek acceptance of the consequences locally.
“It’s a far cry from the doorstep applause of virtue-signalling political leaders just two years ago.
“It shows everyone there are no political superheroes and if you want wages that confront soaring inflation then you need to organise and fight for it.
“That’s exactly what our members are doing and unless an improved pay offer is tabled then industrial action looks inevitable.”
A Cosla spokesman said: “Cosla values the essential roles that all local government workers carry out on a daily basis. We remain in active discussions with our trade union partners.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here