Scotland local government workers reject pay cut

UNISON Scotland has announced that 80% of those voting in a consultative ballot have rejected a three year pay offer of 1% in the first year, 0% in the second and 0.5% in the third. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2010/julyaug/0208.htm

Stephanie Herd, Chair of UNISON’s Scottish Local Government Committee, said: “This overwhelming rejection shows how strongly our members feel about an offer that is in reality a three year pay cut."

UNISON will now consult the other unions this week and call on the employers to get back round the table.

While this is just a rejection at the moment, the ballot information was clear that industrial action would be needed if the employers did not move.

The question arises as to whether this is a tentative beginning of workers reacting against the media's blind acceptance, shared not doubt by many of those same workers, that there is no alternative to cuts and 'we have to be realistic'.

As the myths begin to unfold and people begin to appreciate that there is an alternative and the cuts are more ideologically than financially based, will the rejection turn into an appetite for action?

What is clear is that Scotland's local government members are furious that chief officers and teachers are getting 2.5% and 2.4% respectively while they are facing a pay cut in real terms.

They should be angry that their reward for delivering £258 million in efficiencies the last two years is a pay cut, while bankers who were making huge losses were getting millions in bonuses!

It is hard for public service workers to contemplate action in a climate where they are being accused of being greedy and are being blamed for a problem they did not cause. That's why one of the UNISON Scotland 'PUBLIC WORKS' slogans is that public service workers are 'not part of the Problem'. They are ' part of the Solution'.

If members and activists are to have the confidence to put that message across and the confidence to demand fair pay, they will need support. The union will need to engage them and give them the tools for the job. That needs a campaigning strategy that includes brief, punchy and effective 'political' education to expose the myths behind the 'accepted' view that cuts are inevitable - and challenges the ideology that is waging war on them and their services.

The Scotland Local Government claim is for
-1 year deal
-3% or £600
- £7 minimum wage in line with living wage campaign with the settlement to be weighted
towards lower paid
- Encourage voluntary sector organisations conditioned to the SJC to pick up the award