Strikes will now close primary schools in nine Scottish council areas

Now Sturgeon is threatened with her own Summer of Discontent as strikes will close primary schools and nurseries in nine Scottish council areas – after bin chaos crippled cities

Notice of action in education and waste services in 20 councils served today
Unions had no breakthrough with Deputy First Minister John Swinney yesterday
They’d already rejected a 5 per cent wage increase in light of cost of living crisis
The protest over pay began last Thursday, wreaking bin chaos in Edinburgh
Now some primary schools will be closed for three days from September 6 to 9

Industrial action in Scotland is spreading as school and early years workers and more councils from across the country will join the binmen in strikes that have already wreaked bin chaos in cities.

Notice of strike action in education and waste services across 20 councils in Scotland has been served by Unite the Union today, after the protest over pay began last Thursday – with a total of 13,000 members set to be involved, according to Unison.

Unite today confirmed that despite ‘constructive’ talks with Deputy First Minister John Swinney yesterday, there was no breakthrough and there remains no new offer on the table.

The announcement has forced the closure of all primary schools, nurseries and ASL schools in nine Scottish council areas for three days, from September 6 to 8.

Wrappers and takeaway containers have been piling up in the streets of Edinburgh and bins have been overflowing with litter at a time when the city is full of tourists because of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe held every August.

The capital’s council leader Cammy Day has decribed ‘a national crisis playing out in Edinburgh’s streets during our busiest and most important time of the year’.

Unions have already rejected a 5 per cent wage increase – funded in part with £140 million of Scottish Government cash – claiming this is insufficient in the face of rampant inflation and soaring bills.

Wrappers and takeaway containers have been piling up in the streets of Edinburgh (pictured) and bins have been overflowing with litter at a time when the city is full of tourists because of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe held every August

The capital’s council leader Cammy Day has decribed ‘a national crisis playing out in Edinburgh’s streets during our busiest and most important time of the year’, as rubbish is strewn across the city’s pavements (Edinburgh pictured)

Binmen in Scotland have been striking for a week now, wreaking bin chaos in cities such as Edinburgh (pictured)

Members in waste services currently taking strike action in 14 councils will take another eight days of action from September 6 to 13, while a further five local authorities: Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, Fife and North Ayrshire – will join the second phase of strike action.

The union’s members in schools and early years services across nine councils: Angus, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Aberdeenshire and Stirling – are also scheduled to take strike action on September 6 to 9.

Workers represented by the unions include school catering staff, cleaners, caretakers, teaching assistants and early years practitioners.

The GMB’s public services organiser Keir Greenaway said: ‘Our members in schools and early years are among the lowest paid in our councils yet deliver vital services that support our kids’ education, help keep them fed, and their schools clean and safe – all too often they are forgotten workers of the Scottish education system.

‘They deserved to be valued so much better, and they need to be too if they are able to survive the scourge of soaring inflation and energy bills in the weeks and months to come.’

Members employed by Tayside Contracts to provide catering and janitorial services in schools across Angus, Dundee and Perth and Kinross councils will also strike, taking the total of local authorities affected by strike action to 20.

A rally outside Edinburgh City Chamber is pictured on the second week of the Edinburgh bin strike as litter piles up across the Scottish capital

A picket line is pictured outside Bankhead waste and cleansing depot in Edinburgh on the second week of the Edinburgh bin strike

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: ‘We now plan to spread this action across 20 councils in education and waste services.

‘For five months, Cosla and the Scottish Government have dithered and bickered with each other while our members have increasingly faced a cost-of-living crisis. We will fully support them in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.’

It came after the Deputy First Minister insisted he has ‘no legal standing’ to negotiate a deal to end strike action that has left rubbish piled up on the streets of Edinburgh – despite unions pleading for ministers to take part in talks.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said: ‘Nobody wants to see the kind of disruption and impact of strikes that many people are witnessing in Edinburgh right now.’

After a week of strike action, bins are overflowing into streets in Edinburgh

Experts have warned Edinburgh faces a ‘massive expansion’ in the population of vermin like rats and mice as a consequence of the ongoing strike action that has left rubbish all over the city

The issue has become so bad that some locals have taken to sealing the openings on already full bins to stop people from trying – and failing – to push more items in.

Experts have warned the city faces a ‘massive expansion’ in the population of vermin like rats and mice as a consequence of the ongoing strike action.

Terry Levinthal, director of the Cockburn Association, the city’s heritage watchdog, told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme he was worried the situation would become ‘a massive public health problem’, adding: ‘Even before the strike there were problems.’

Meanwhile, Glasgow City Council has urged residents to ‘minimise the amount of waste you produce’ and ‘store your waste at home if you can’.

Mr Swinney met union leaders yesterday evening after action by council cleansing staff spread from Edinburgh to other parts of the country.

He said afterwards that while he is ‘determined to be helpful’, a deal to end the pay row has to be reached by unions and employers at local government body Cosla.

Mr Swinney (pictured) met union leaders yesterday evening after action by council cleansing staff spread from Edinburgh to other parts of the country

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the union now plans to spread the strike action across 20 councils in education and waste services

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (pictured recently) has said: ‘Nobody wants to see the kind of disruption and impact of strikes that many people are witnessing in Edinburgh right now’

Ms Sturgeon has said Holyrood does not have a ‘bottomless pit of money’ and insisted she wanted to ‘see the fairest possible pay deal delivered to public sector workers in very difficult times’.

Trade unions were offered a 5 per cent pay rise by Cosla, the body representing local government, but Unite described this as an ‘insulting’ amount in the face of the cost of living crisis.

Unite said that, for more than half of council workers, Cosla’s offer represented a rise of between £900 to £1,250, which would see the the lowest paid council staff’s salaries rise to £10.50 an hour.

This is despite council workers in England being offered a £1,925 flat rate pay offer.

Unions already warned their action would escalate if an agreement cannot be reached to increase workers’ wages.

Wendy Dunsmore, of the Unite union, said: ‘It’s going to escalate, it will escalate throughout the winter and we are urging the Scottish Government to get quickly round the table with us and Cosla to explore and thrash out a deal for our workers.’

Unions already warned their action would escalate if an agreement cannot be reached to increase workers’ wages, which would only add to the ongoing bin chaos

Rubbish is pictured piling up on the streets as the council staff strike continues in Edinburgh

Unions argue the Scottish Government, which provides the bulk of funding for councils, must become directly involved.

But Mr Swinney said there needs to be ‘intense dialogue and negotiation’ between Cosla and the unions to resolve the dispute.

He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: ‘What I have encouraged Cosla to do is to enter into intense negotiations with the trade unions, the trade unions want those intense negotiations to help to resolve matters.

‘I will be as helpful as I possibly can be to try to bring agreement together.’

He said he is ‘determined to be helpful’ but also insisted: ‘I can’t negotiate this agreement, I am not the employer, I have no legal standing to negotiate.’

Ms Dunsmore said yesterday’s discussions with Mr Swinney had looked at how councils could use existing funding previously earmarked for other areas ‘to make sure that workers get a fair and decent pay offer’.

She said this ‘hopefully will mean a bigger pay rise’.

Source: Read Full Article