20,000 UNISON members striking for pay justice

By Socialist Party Scotland members in UNISON

More than 20,000 UNISON members in Scottish schools and early years settings across Scotland are striking in record numbers this week in the face of another unacceptable below inflation pay offer. 

24 out of 32 local authority UNISON branches not only voted overwhelmingly for strike action, they also got over the 50% turnout threshold set by the Tory anti-trade union laws. That says everything about how angry members are at year after year of below inflation pay deals. 

We are sick to death of years of pay restraint and cuts. The latest tweaking of the pay offer by COSLA and the Scottish government has added insult to injury. 

Bottom line, we are still being asked to accept below inflation deals that would mean being left poorer amidst a cost of living nightmare. 

UNISON’s decision to press ahead with action and refusing to accept the latest employer offer last week is very welcome, and it reflects the mood among our members in schools and early years. 

We are sick to death of years of pay restraint and cuts. The latest tweaking of the pay offer by COSLA and the Scottish government has added insult to injury. 

We know that strike action works. Time after time workers have forced the Scottish government into pay concessions after taking or threatening industrial action. 

Socialist Party Scotland members in UNISON, along with those organised in the broad left Scottish UNISON Socialist Network, are working to ensure the strikes are as successful as possible. 

Workers expressing their collective power on the picket lines and demonstrations will be much more effective than dragged out talks. Workers are convinced to join trade unions and also get involved, taking positions as workplace reps, when effective action is taken. 

The cuts agenda continues apace across local government. Decisive industrial action on pay can strengthen the fight for public investment to reverse the cuts. It also exposes the Scottish government and councils of all political persuasions who have meekly passed cuts budgets for years. 

It also underlines why we need a political alternative – a genuine party of the working class – that re- fuses to make cuts and sets no cuts budgets. Socialist Party Scotland as part of the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition stands in election on these policies. 

It was the SNP councillor and spokesperson for COSLA who commented when UNISON rejected the pay deal: “It is totally unacceptable that with such a significant offer on the table that our trade union colleagues are putting our communities and our young people through the turmoil of strikes.”

This was followed by an unnamed SNP source briefing the National newspaper that because a leading Scottish UNISON official was a Labour Party member and a supporter of Keir Starmer that the strike was a unionist plot by a Labour affiliated union to discredit the nationalist-led Scottish government. 

The truth is that it’s the anger of tens of thousands of low paid, mainly women workers who have driven the drive for strike action.

These actions underline the fact that the SNP leaders are no allies of workers fighting for inflation-proof pay rises. But neither is the Labour leadership who have dragged the party to the right, embracing pro-big business agenda as the speed of light. 

So who will fight for workers? The trade unions are best placed to help build that alternative in the form of launching a new workers’ party. 

That’s why Socialist Party Scotland member and Glasgow Unison Social Work Convenor Chris Sermanni is standing in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election for the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, calling for a new mass workers’ party based on the trade unions. And support for workers taking strike action. Moreover, in the coming general election we will need a list of workers’ candidates fighting for socialist policies. 

Socialist Party Scotland fights to end the capitalist cost of living crisis with a socialist transformation, meaning nationalisation of the big banks, energy, supermarkets, industry and infrastructure under democratic working class control and management.