Unison members in Scottish schools will strike 26-28 September, despite the GMB and Unite pulling out of what was to be a joint strike by the three unions.
21,000 Unison members working in 24 of Scotland 32 local authorities will strike. GMB members in ten local authorities and Unite members in eleven local authorities had been due to strike.
Although the strike is for a pay rise for all council staff, it specifically targets schools and early years centres. Unison members on strike are school cleaners, kitchen staff, admin. workers and support staff.
All three unions had rejected an offer by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities of a pay rise of 5.5%. The unions’ demand, although never prominently stated, is a 12% pay rise, with a minimum rate of pay of £15 an hour.
But the sole focus in their publicity has always simply been on “an improved pay offer”.
Last week the Scottish Government freed up £80 millions of ring-fenced funding (i.e. ring-fenced for other council spending, but not additional funding for councils), which, they claimed, was enough to increase the pay of the lowest-paid workers by “about” (i.e. less than) £2,000 a year.
This was good enough for the GMB and Unite, who were both quick to announce that they would be balloting their members on the new offer and therefore pulling out of the three-day strike.
Unison too will be balloting its members on the offer, but did not use that as a reason to drop the strike action. As Unison pointed out, the extra money found for improving the pay offer comes at a cost of cuts to jobs and services elsewhere.
This resulted in a particularly nasty attack on Unison by The National, a pro-independence propaganda sheet which masquerades as a newspaper.
Was it really a politically motivated anti-SNP strike, the rag demanded to know, given that Unison’s lead negotiator, Johanna Baxter, is a Labour Party member and director of the Scotland in Union campaign?
The smarter elements in the SNP were quick to distance themselves from the article. But it comes of a timely reminder of what lies behind the SNP façade of “progressive civic nationalism”.
The decision of the GMB and Unite to pull out of the strike will blunt its impact and allow more schools to remain open. Members of all three unions should reject the latest pay offer and re-schedule co-ordinated strike action.