Fight the public sector cuts

Defend Glasgow Services campaign to be launched

Glasgow City Council has announced 600 job losses with more planned in the next few years.The Council has said that they want to cut the workforce by at least 10%. The 2010 cuts include the closure of twelve community centres, a library and a swimming pool. Charges are to be made for school breakfast clubs and sports centres will have reduced opening times. Cuts will made in home care services and support to people with disabilities. Three of the city’s 10 centres for people with leaning disability will go under the heading of “service reform”. Welfare rights workers will be lost and community worker jobs cut by 50%. Grants to community organisations are also to be slashed by 20% over the next three years.

Brian Smith – Glasgow Unison branch secretary

Both Glasgow City Council and its Arms Length Organisations intend to make more cuts over the next three years. The decision by politicians in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow to cut public services to pay for the bail out of the bankers is short sighted and a false economy. Maintaining the current levels of council spending would help the local economy during the recession by protecting jobs in the city. As unemployment rises and the social fallout of the recession grows, the demands on council services will increase. The council is intending to cut services just as the demand for those very services increases.

The communities of Glasgow face a big reduction in services. It is crucial that links are built between the users of services and the workers who provide them. The local UNISON branch intends to play a strong role in assisting those communities who are willing to fight cuts in services and is calling on its 11,500 members and the people of Glasgow to lobby their City Councillors, MSPs and MPs as a first step in a Defend Glasgow’s Services campaign. As part of this campaign the branch are also organising a public meeting on Saturday 23 January at 11am in the UNISON office, 4th Floor, 18 Albion St.