Victory to Aberdeen housing workers – Full funding for public services now!

By Lucas Grant

Unite members employed as housing officers by Aberdeen council are taking a series of strikes against scandalous attacks on their roles and conditions of work.

The move to combine the roles of Housing Officer and Housing Support Officer is a ridiculous example of major cuts to services at the expense of residents and workers.

Aberdeen City council’s continued cuts and underfunding across the board to public services are unacceptable.

Over the past several years the council has pushed and pushed for continually more restrictive budgets that not only hurt the people who rely upon them most but also the workers who are within these services. 

Under the guise of “Streamlining” Aberdeen City council has engaged in of endangerment of vital services for the people of Aberdeen, this move is a continuation of such actions.

Many of these residents are vulnerable individuals, with greater degrees of poverty throughout the city over the course of the pandemic and before. 

As workers themselves have put it, you would not expect a teacher to clean the school or cook dinner for their students, so why is it a sensible idea to combine such roles which are for all intents and purposes difficult to undertake simultaneously?

The overwork this presents for those in the housing department is also a major area of concern, with roles also requiring possibly additional training that will unlikely be forthcoming. 

Socialist Party Scotland in Aberdeen has been more than happy to turn out to support workers in this dispute and will continue to do so.

Industrial action is the only option open to Housing workers at this point as Aberdeen City Council is continuing down their path of cuts to vital services. 

What we call for…

Socialist Party Scotland stands firmly on the idea that any form of cuts to public services are completely unacceptable, and ultimately dangerous for the working class. Services and workers must receive the support that they require in their workplace, something that is severely lacking. 

Aberdeen City Council is run in an unacceptable manner, lacking democratic accountability almost entirely. The council it is very clear is run in a similar way to a business and the cost-cutting actions only go as to reaffirm this.

We call for councils throughout the UK, including in Aberdeen, to set no cuts budgets as to cease the gutting of the Public Sector. The council should also have a far greater degree of accountability, with democratic oversight of its operation by workers and the public, run collectively by fully accountable delegates at all levels. 

We call for Aberdeen City Council to immediately heed the demands of Unite members who are undertaking Industrial Action over the next few weeks.

The council’s actions are unacceptable and we urge everyone to stand in solidarity with Unite Housing workers in Aberdeen.