9 February 2017
UNISON lobbies Council Budget Meeting - Stand up for local services
UNISON, the union representing Edinburgh Council workers, will lobby the City of Edinburgh Council’s budget meeting on Thursday 9 February, calling on the Labour/SNP administration to expose ‘the human cost of yet more massive Government cuts.’
The lobby will be held at Edinburgh City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh from 08.30-09.45.
Tom Connolly, UNISON Edinburgh lead negotiator, said: “Edinburgh Council will have to find another £40 million in cuts on top of huge year on year cuts that have seen 1,400 jobs lost in the last year. That’s 1,400 people who contributed years of valuable service to the people of Edinburgh including the most vulnerable and underprivileged.
“Services are now on a knife edge and workloads in some areas are unsustainable. We will not accept unacceptable workloads or unsafe working practices and will not tolerate any form of bullying and harassment or discrimination.
“We will be urging the council to stand up for local services and expose the human cost of yet more massive Government cuts by publishing an alternative budget to show what services could be like if properly funded.”
John Stevenson, Edinburgh UNISON President added: “We now know that the SNP Government’s own adviser warned that council cuts would hit the poorest hardest and the Council Tax freeze would benefit the better off. Of all the jobs cuts under the control of the Scottish Government, 87% have come in local government.
“It’s time for the Scottish Government to stop fiddling the figures while piling austerity on to local councils and come clean about the cuts and their effects.”