UNISON has sent notices to nine councils across Scotland that school and early years staff will be on strike on 6th, 7th and 8th of September, after lack of progress in talks with COSLA over council pay.
School and early years workers will join UNISON waste and recycling staff who will have already started their strike action on 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th August and 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th September. UNISON have a mandate to call out 13,000 workers on strike.
Staff will disrupt schools, early years centres, nurseries and waste and recycling centres across Scotland, in the largest strike among council workers since the Trade Union Act was introduced in 2016.
The councils notified include: Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow City, Inverclyde, Orkney, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire councils.
Johanna Baxter, UNISON Scotland head of local government, said: “We are in urgent negotiations with the employer to try and find a solution, but so far we have only had an offer of talks – we have not had a pay offer. Until we can explain to UNISON members how a pay offer might impact on them, council workers have been left with no choice but to strike.
“UNISON has been demanding pay talks for months and COSLA and the Scottish Government are still dragging their heels. Inflation is predicted to rise to more than 13%, and our members are struggling as fuel, food and household bills go through the roof.
“Until we have a decent pay offer that we can put to UNISON members our strike action will continue and thousands of school and early years workers will be talking action across nine councils in Scotland.”
Notes
• UNISON is the largest union in local government.
• The UNISON branches that met the required threshold are: City of Glasgow, Orkney Islands Council, Aberdeenshire Council, East Renfrewshire Council, North Lanarkshire Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Clackmannanshire Council, Stirling Council, Inverclyde.
• COSLA offer is here: https://unison-scotland.org/wp-content/uploads/22-02-28-SJC-Letter-of-Offer.doc
• Trade union pay claim is here: https://unison-scotland.org/wp-content/uploads/SJC-Pay-Claim-2022.pdf
• National Employers for local government services (UK) LOCAL GOVERNMENT PAY 2022 – pay offer: https://unison-scotland.org/wp-content/uploads/Emps-to-NJC-TUs-pay-offer-25Jul22.pdf