THE MONTH OF MISERY
Revealed, how EVERY SINGLE DAY for the rest of August will be blighted by strike action
SCOTS will suffer daily strikes until the end of this month as pressure mounts on the SNP to act.
More than 20,000 staff will take industrial action over the next 19 days, with tens of thousands of healthcare workers in talks that could see them join in with the summer of discontent.
From now until the end of August, some form of strike action over pay and working conditions will take place across the country.
Disputes will threaten food and fuel supplies and bin collections as delivery drivers, rail workers and council staff walk out. It comes as more than 40,000 health workers rejected a pay offer from the Scottish Government and balloted for unprecedented industrial action.
Meanwhile, further dates affecting waste and recycling services across local government have been set, with council chiefs scrambling to avert the biggest mass walkout this year. Apocalyptic scenes are being predicted across Scotland in the next fortnight. Rubbish could pile high in streets and passengers looking to travel by train will endure reduced services with some routes grinding to a halt. Motorists could face problems getting fuel at some forecourts.
Criticising the SNP Government, Scottish Tory local government spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘Their decisions to savagely cut council budgets year after year are now coming back to bite them, but they still try to deflect blame elsewhere. If the SNP/Green Government don’t get a grip of this situation, then services and the wider economy will come to a grinding halt in the coming weeks.
‘Ministers must start taking responsibility, urgently get round the table with union leaders and ensure individuals and businesses are not disrupted by widespread strikes.’
Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said: ‘Unless the Scotwalk
‘At the end of their tether’
tish Government get their act together, key services will be paralysed.’
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘Workers right across Scotland are at the end of their tether afters years of mismanagement and economic turmoil under the SNP and the Tories.’
Train drivers belonging to Aslef, which has 2,000 Scots members, are staging a 24-hour walkout today, meaning Avanti West Coast cannot run trains on the West Coast main line between Glasgow and London.
The London North Eastern Railway will also not be able to operate services on the East Coast main line between Edinburgh and London.
A spokesman for Transport Scotland said: ‘Those involved must make every effort to settle the various industrial disputes for the benefit of passengers, staff and communities alike.’
Today also marks the beginning of a week of strike action by distribution workers at DHL. They voted to walk out after rejecting a final pay offer which Unite said represented a realterms cut. Unite represents more than 300 warehouse workers at Langlands Park in East Kilbride.
Strikes there will threaten supplies to more than 100 Sainsbury’s supermarkets and convenience stores in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Unite members who work for City of Edinburgh Council in waste, recycling and street cleaning are also due to
out during the Fringe from August 18 to 30. They will be joined by 1,500 Unite members from 15 councils between August 24 and August 31.
Unison Scotland, which represents around 13,000 bin workers, has served notice of industrial action in eight authorities – Aberdeenshire, Clackmannanshire, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North and South Lanarkshire and Stirling.
The GMB has set strike dates affecting waste and recycling in Aberdeen, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Highland, Midlothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth and Kinross. The first wave will
be from August 26 to 29, with a second from September 7 to 10. Local authority umbrella body Cosla has increased its offer to low-paid staff from 2 to 3.5 per cent. After a special meeting of council leaders yesterday, Cosla spokesman Katie Hagmann said: ‘Leaders continue to call on the Scottish Government to provide funding and flexibilities to enable an offer beyond the monies provided to date.’
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association and Unite are to strike on August 18. The Communication Workers
Union (CWU) said 115,000 Royal Mail staff, including 11,000 in Scotland, will strike from August 26 to 31 and September 8 to 9.
CWU members who work as BT call centre operators and engiEngineering neers took part in strikes on July 29 and August 1. With the row over pay yet to be resolved further action seems inevitable.
In addition, 100 members of the Construction Industry Association at Grangemouth refinery – which supplies twothirds of fuel for Scottish forecourts – are striking every second Wednesday over pay.
Meanwhile, Unite said a second wave of action ‘set to specifically impact schools is expected to begin in early September’.
Civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union – including court and prison staff – are also set to vote on industrial action over pay.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The civil service workforce is integral to our recovery from the pandemic and ministers urge all parties to continue dialogue and reach a resolution which avoids industrial action.’
Other unions discussing possible strikes include the Fire Brigades Union Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service. Police are carrying out a work to rule.
The Scottish Government has promised to put up more than £100million of taxpayers’ cash to try to avert strikes. Yesterday, it agreed to undertake an emergency review ‘to assess any and all opportunities to redirect additional resources’.
WHERE once families had extra cash after the bills had been paid, now many are tightening their belts. As we face the cost of living crisis head on, everyone is doing what they can to make ends meet.
But some public sector workers seem to think this includes industrial action.
NHS and cleansing staff are the latest to announce a strike. Today begins 19 straight days in which strike action will be taking place in Scotland.
Everyone, it seems, wants to hold their employers’ feet to the fire in order to secure a little extra money in the monthly wage packet.
Responsible trade unionism is a proud tradition but striking at the moment of greatest vulnerability for the country is anything but responsible.
Public sector employees ought to remember that private sector workers – the productive sector of the economy – are having it tough too.
They don’t have powerful unions capable of bringing the country to a halt until their demands are met.
The economy took an almighty clobbering when the pandemic hit – and it is still struggling to get back on its feet. An endless succession of strikes will only make that harder.
We are all in this together and the only way we will get out of it is by working together. All sides need to show restraint and a willingness to compromise.
Restoring the economy to rude health is an urgent national emergency, one in which all of us must play our part.