Local government workers fighting wage cuts and attacks

Tens of thousands of low paid council workers in Dundee and across Scotland are facing three years of cuts in wages following their employers (CoSLA) pay offer.
 
With inflation rates for the year to March 2010 at 3.4% and 4.4% (depending on which figure is used) CoSLA’s offer of 1% for 2010, 0% for 2011 and 0.5% for 2012 represents year-on-year pay cuts for more than 150,000 workers in Scotland.

Jim McFarlane the Dundee West Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (STUSC) candidate and himself a council worker and a Unison trade union activist said: “An unholy alliance of politicians from all the main parties have the gall to offer hard-pressed and often low paid staff the insult of three years of cuts in wages. This is yet another example of the big business parties seeking to make ordinary workers pay for an economic crisis we did nothing to create.
“To rub salt into our wounds the fat cats and bankers are still awarding themselves tens of millions in pay and bonuses, while ordinary working people are put on a diet of cuts and attacks on our pay and pensions.”

 “In the last ten years the pay of the top executives of the leading 100 companies in Britian has risen by 125%, and their pay is now 81 times that of an average worker. Is this not yet another example of one rule for the rich and another for the rest of us?”
 
“Labour, the SNP and the rest of the parties who make up CoSLA should be ashamed of themselves. In attacking some of the lowest paid, a majority of whom are women workers, in this way, they have exposed their own hypocrisy in pretending to stand up for workers and trade union rights.”
 
“It’s high time that the millionarie and billionaire bankers and bosses who have been complicit in causing the economic mess we are in paid the price. It’s time to raise the tax threshold on the super-rich and ensure that their tax avoidance scams are ended instead of attacking the wages of ordinary working people. Why should we pay for an eeconomic crisis we did not create?
 
“That’s why workers and trade unionsts need a political alternative that stands up for them. The Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is helping to provide that alternative at this election.”

Workers to strike in Glasgow

Workers in Culture and Sport Glasgow are about to begin strike action in a dispute over a wage cut of up to 10% for almost 200 workers, a pay freeze for all other workers and cuts in public holidays and overtime rates. The first day of action will be Friday 30 April with over 1,500 workers being called out by the four trade unions (UNISON, GMB, UNITE and BECTU).   All the trade unions in CSG are united in their opposition to the attacks on their members pay and conditions and have attempted through negotiations to persuade CSG to back down.  However workers have been left with no option other than to use strike action in an effort to defend their pay and conditions.

CSG was established several years ago at “arms length” from Glasgow City Council to obtain a tax advantage, to draw in private money and grants from charitable trusts. It has failed to live up to the promise. Ultimately the standard of service which the public will receive in their libraries, sports centres and community centres will be affected if workers wages and conditions are cut.

Public services workers, many low paid, should not have to pay for the failures of CSG and Glasgow City Council. Working people in general should not be asked to pay for the bail out of the banks and the mistakes of bankers. It is important that all trade unionists and working people stand together at this time.

Please send protest letters to Bridget McConnell, CSG Chief Executive, 20 Trongate or to info@csglasgow.org and to Glasgow City Councillor Liz Cameron, Chair CSG Board, 20 Trongate or to liz.cameron@councillors.glasgow.gov.uk.  Messages of support to the strikers should be sent to enquiries@glasgowcityunison.co.uk or to the UNISON Branch, 18 Albion Street, G1 1LH