Trade unions prepare for action as Glasgow Labour votes for huge cuts
Matt Dobson reports
Glasgow Labour council passed the largest cuts budget since devolution on 10th March. £130m is due to be axed over the next two years with £83m of that figure falling in the next 12 months.
In this budget the council used all of its £25m from its reserves and voted through £58m in cuts.
Still, the details of cuts made public make up barely £19m, indicating the political trepidation the Labour administration has about announcing the attacks to come.
The cuts include:
- 1500 job losses
- A doubling from £1 to £2 for the cost of breakfast clubs for school children. Meaning an extra £40 a month for 2-child families.
- Janitors posts cut from one per school to four per five schools.
- Major cuts for the council’s ALEOS, voluntary organisations and community grants.
- Attacks to worker’s terms and conditions with public holidays becoming annual leave days and flexi leave being “standardised” across the council.
- The removal of May Day as a public holiday. An incredible irony coming from a Labour council.
The 1500 job cuts through “natural wastage” will see workloads rise for the remaining workforce.
300 trade unionists and community campaigners protested at the full council demanding a no cuts budget.
Brian Smith, secretary of Glasgow City Unison and Socialist Party Scotland member, speaking at the lobby said: “It is one thing to pass a budget, it’s another to implement it with the mass opposition this scale of austerity will fuel. We have consistently made the point to the administration that if they come for terms and conditions there is a mood to fight and there will be industrial action. The national unions also need to co-ordinate national action of local government workers against cuts.”
The GMB convener for land and environmental services, Chris Mitchell, warned that these cuts would be “met with anger by cleansing workers.” The GMB in Glasgow has already returned a 90% vote for strike action in an indicitive ballot. Glasgow Council Unite convener Eddie Cassidy made the point the cuts are “a political choice rather than fighting back”
Trade Unionists representing education workers, Carol Ball of Glasgow City Unison and Susan Quinn of EIS outlined the union’s legal alternative no cuts budget.
Trade union campaign
The campaign by the joint trade unions for a no-cuts budget dominated discussion in the run-up to the budget. All the councils political groups and officers were forced to engage with the demand and justify why they were rejecting it.
Council officers were forced to draft a letter to all councillors attempting to scare councillors, trade unionists and the wider working class of the consequences of defying rather than implementing austerity.
Even the limited online council run public consultation over the budget returned a majority vote for the unions no cuts alternative budget proposal.
The SNP and the Greens amendments to the budget claimed they would not have changed terms and conditions “without agreement from the unions”.
However, the SNP amendment proposed £35 million in immediate cuts and holding off £40 million cuts until next year. The Greens put forward the idea of road tolls to raise revenue and an overall budget that still involved cuts.
Labour council leader Frank McAveety blamed the cuts on the fact that Glasgow is disproportionately hit by the Scottish government budget cuts. This is correct but why not then make that a basis for a citywide fightback by setting a no-cuts budget and mobilising a mass campaign of the trade unions and communities in the city? Instead the Labour administration has placed the burden on the working class of Glasgow.
The scale of attacks will be difficult to implement with resistance from the workforce and communities making it hard to “balance the books”. It is possible another budgetary crisis could develop even before the 2017 elections.
As a consequence of the road they have taken the deeply unpopular Labour administration look likely to be heavily punished in the next council elections in May 2017 and turfed out of power in Glasgow.
Trade unionists in the public in the gallery and watching the livestream from the council chambers reacted with anger and disgust as Labour and the SNP councillors behaved like squabbling austerity twins, blaming each other and the Tory Westminster government for the cuts.
Labour councillors and their supporters on social media even claimed the budget protected services in the city. The SNP attacked Labour over cuts but were silent on the fact the funding deal comes from the SNP Scottish government.
The Scottish Trade Union and Socialist Coalition was the primary political force at the lobby calling for a no-cuts budget. TUSC will be standing candidates across Glasgow in the Scottish Parliament election.
