Published: Wednesday, 27th August, 2008 12:30
Strike hits council services in Clackmannanshire
By Jamie MacDonald
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Council workers stayed away from work last Wednesday causing many services to be suspended for the day.
Pic by: Jan van der Merwe
COUNCIL services across Clackmannanshire ground to a halt last Wednesday as local authority employees took part in a 24-hour strike over pay.
Picket lines were drawn outside schools and other council run buildings as workers took action following an offer of an annual pay rise of 2.5 per cent a year for the next three years.
Up to 150,000 members of the GMB, Unite and Unison trade unions nationally took part in the strike.
Community Access Points, leisure centres and libraries shut along with the council’s waste and recycling centre at Forthbank and buildings, such as Kelliebank.
Schools were closed to pupils as non-teaching staff joined the strike, although teachers were still required to work.
With inflation at a rate of 4.4 per cent, the unions have asked for a settlement aimed at bringing the salary of the lowest paid workers closer to £6.75 per hour – a figure they claim poverty experts say is the minimum living wage.
Picketing outside Lornshill Academy were school janitors Eddie Gray and Peter Paterson along with technician Scott Neilson. There were regular toots of the horn from cars passing the school in support of their strike.
Eddie told the Advertiser, “We have had quite a few peeps from cars and there have also been a lot of teachers stopping to speak to us and saying they support what we are fighting for.”
Scott added, “The council has made millions of savings over the past couple of years from us.
“We are on a better rate than some such as the cleaners who can be on under six quid an hour, and it is also them we are fighting for. A lot of those on strike are not even union members which is encouraging.
“One member did cross the picket line to work saying she had a family and kids to feed but that is exactly why we have done this and it is people like that we are trying to support.”
He went on, “I am willing to repeat this action for as long as it takes.”
When the Advertiser passed Kelliebank there were no strikers in the immediate vicinity – just a sign asking others not to cross the picket line.
A constant stream of cars packed with items to be recycled were turned away from the gates of the recycling centre at Forthbank.
Protesting there was Archie Harper, from the roads department, who claimed that the pay offer for the next three years followed years of below inflation pay deals.
He said, “For the last five years we have been offered around two and a half per cent and they want to add it for another three years – in effect our pay has been going down all that time.
“It is a kick in the teeth, but it is not just the council, it is the government too. It is just take, take, take, but they won’t give us anything back.”
Clackmannanshire Council claims it has made the best offer possible from a tight budget. The local authority is already negotiating with unions over single status and equal pay – a reorganisation of salary scales to prevent inequalities.
A total of £2 million has been budgeted to cope with historic equal pay and put the new pay scheme in place.
Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said the present deal on offer basically added up to a pay cut.
He went on, “I think it’s a disgrace that Scotland’s hard-working public sector workers are being singled out for a pay cut. The employers must heed the voice of their own workforce and get back round the negotiating table to settle this dispute.
“Over the past two years, the workforce has delivered to councils in Scotland £200 million worth of efficiency savings.
“Our members have not taken this action lightly – they are the lowest paid workers in the public sector, but they are saying enough is enough.
“They are having to make difficult choices about which bills to pay – bread is up 17 per cent, butter up 31 per cent, eggs up 37 per cent, central heating oil up 74 per cent - how far will 2.5 per cent go?”
Pupils at Alloa, Alva and Lornshill Academies who enjoyed a day off during the strike probably won’t enjoy the same luxury once they move into the new schools currently being built.
The new Public Private Partnership buildings will be staffed by non-council employees and it is unlikely that industrial action by GMB, Unite or Unison would lead to the schools’ closure.
p Last Wednesday’s strike action by council workers meant green household bins were not emptied.
The green bins were scheduled to be emptied yesterday (Wednesday) instead, with the next pick up of brown bins due for 10 September.
Green bins will be picked up as normal on 3 September.
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