Co-ordinated strike threat forces climbdown by Labour council
Ian Leech reports
Glasgow’s Labour controlled council has been forced into a major retreat in its plan to impose cuts of 6 public holidays from staff as part of its overall budget cut of £130million.
At its budget setting meeting last March, every Labour councillor voted to attack staff terms and conditions by a number of measures including cutting the public holidays, reducing staff flexible working time and reducing ‘new starts’ leave entitlement. Disgracefully the target dates for the public holiday cut also included abolishing the labour movement’s Mayday holiday.
Unbelievably, the projected saving from this measure was only £578K towards the £130million!
The retreat came after the city’s trade unions Unison, Unite and GMB organised ballots of their members in opposition to the public holiday cut. Those staff who are ‘on rota’ to work on public holidays stood to lose substantial amounts of money by the removal of the public holiday designation.
GMB had already balloted their membership amongst Cleansing Workers and had secured a sizable majority for action. On Friday 20th May the result of UNISON’s ballot of its members in Residential and Emergency duty teams also secured a majority for action. Within 2 hours of the result being conveyed to the employer, the Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council issued an email to all GCC employees stating…
“The council’s administration has decided to withdraw proposals to replace some public holidays with annual leave, having made significant progress delivering budget savings. The council has to save £130 million over two years, but current budget out-turns are stronger than expected at this stage. This is because you are helping us make considerable progress in delivering the reforms and efficiencies that are required to protect frontline services. As a result public holidays will continue as normal.”
Despite this measure being one of a number of outstanding proposals affecting the staff as previously outlined, this retreat represents a blow to the Glasgow Labour group’s authority. It is widely known that the administration has been experiencing ‘difficulties’ in its relationships with its various Heads of Departments for some time and is also facing the prospect of losing control of Glasgow to the SNP in next May’s council elections. However the defeat was brought about first and foremost through the threat of co-ordinated industrial action across the city’s trade unions. The cutting of public holidays has been introduced across many other local authorities in Scotland with little opposition, and in some places with the agreement of local trade unions. Yet here is evidence that members are prepared to fight to defend their terms and conditions if a clear lead is given.
During the course of the Glasgow budget setting process, the city’s trade unions came together in a unified campaign to demand an alternative, legal ‘No cuts’ budget. The Labour group were offered an opportunity through the measures contained in this demand, along with principled trade union support, to begin a fightback and demand more money from Holyrood following the SNP Scottish Government’s capitulation in voting through £500million cuts.
This ‘No Cuts’ campaign saw the city’s unions working closer together. It is this type of coordinated approach that needs to be replicated across the country in defence of local government jobs and services.
