Perth and Kinross council workers take on Scottish government

News

Members of the Unison union in Scottish local authorities began a two-week strike on Monday.

More than 1,000 workers took to the doorstep of Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, to fight for higher wages.

Unison union members have closed all primary schools and early childhood education centers in the Swinney districts of Perth and Kinross.

A two-week strike by local government workers that began on Monday has also led to the closure of two secondary schools.

Stuart Hope, Unison’s Perth and Kinross branch secretary, told Socialist Worker that strikers were “full of spirit” on Monday. “This is a big ask for our members to come forward across Scotland,” he said.

“But it’s completely foolproof—everyone stays awake for a full two weeks.”

Local government workers are fighting against the Scottish National Party (SNP) government’s 3.6 per cent pay rise deal.

The strikers, mostly women, primarily work as teaching assistants, cleaners, food service workers and in administrative positions.

On the eve of the action, Swinney was outraged, saying that the workers had “absolutely no reason” to leave. But these already underpaid workers are right to resist yet another rubbish wage deal.

His government says there is no more money to offer workers better terms. And he refuses to sit down with Unison to resolve the dispute.

Stewart said strikers were “extremely disappointed” by Swinney’s intransigence. “They are seeing pay rises for other public sector workers and millions of pounds being invested in other projects,” he said.

“They start to doubt whether they are valued.” Schools and primary school staff, as well as waste, recycling and street cleaning workers, have a mandate to strike in 17 other councils in Scotland.

Unison should identify them all. Strikers in Perth and Kinross are leading the way with inspiring action, but victory will require action at a national level.

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Local government ballots did not reach turnout threshold

Some 82,000 local government workers in England and Wales voted to strike, but fell short of the turnout threshold required by Tory anti-union laws that are still in place.

About 80 per cent of Unison union members who voted supported strikes in lieu of pay, but turnout was only 29 per cent.

Three branches – Knowsley and Wirral in Merseyside and Barnet in north London – managed to pass the 50 per cent threshold.

Helen Davies, chair of the Barnet Unison branch and executive representative of Unison’s local government services group in London, said the result reflected a “mixed picture”.

“A third of members say wages are an issue and they want to go on strike – that’s not a majority, but it’s significant,” she said. “At some point, these voices need to be heard.”

The vote was hampered by technical difficulties, such as postal ballots not reaching workers’ homes, and a poor quality database provided by Unison nationally.

This, along with the slowness of the union bureaucracy, meant that industry activists found it extremely difficult to speak, let alone convince people to vote.

“This shows that no lessons have been learned from previous years,” says Helen.

“There were many factors that prevented this vote from being successful. We had an advisory vote that confused people, and then there was a long delay before the official vote.

Helen says recent local strikes in Barnet have “increased” grievances over pay and conditions at her workplace – and made it easier to collect ballots.

“In the adult department where we went on strike, the response was much stronger than the year before,” she said.

This is an example of how a strike strengthens union organizing in the workplace.