Unions have said that unless negotiations reopen with a ‘vastly improved offer’ then industrial action looks ‘inevitable’
By Bill Heaney
STV News is reporting that thousands of workers across all 32 of Scotland’s councils are considering strike action over a “paltry” 2% pay offer.
Unions have said that unless negotiations reopen with a “vastly improved offer” then industrial action looks “inevitable”.
On Monday, members of the Unite and GMB unions started the process that could lead to industrial action across the country in the face of the biggest cost of living crisis in four decades.
Unite confirmed that it will ballot thousands of its members in schools and cleansing
GMB said nearly 10,000 workers could strike as it sent statutory notice to council chiefs ahead of a ballot of all members in schools, early years, waste and cleansing services.
The unions have rejected outright a 2% pay offer from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
They say the rise would equate to a massive real terms pay cuts for frontline workers after inflation rose to a 40-year high.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The last offer on the table from the employer was a pathetic 2%.
“Our members are not putting up with this and they will have their union’s full support in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions in local government.”
GMB Scotland senior organiser Keir Greenaway said the pay offer would turn the cost of living crisis into a catastrophe for many working families
“Tens of thousands of the lowest paid staff in local government will go from the frontline of public service delivery to below the breadline unless their pay confronts soaring inflation and eye-watering energy bills,” he said.
A COSLA spokesperson said: “We remain in active discussions with our trade union partners.”
Ah the Flamingo Land development application is back in.
Very much as before this is a housing development in the making. Ergo –
” * 32-bedspace budget accommodation;
• Up to 127 self-catering lodges comprised as follows:
• 17 woodland bothies/pods (in grounds of
Woodbank House)
• 30 woodland lodges (in grounds of Woodbank
House)
• 37 Countryside Lodges (in grounds of Woodbank
House)
• 42 Lodges at West Riverfront
• Up to 15 apartments within Woodbank House
• Up to 6 apartments within the refurbished outbuildings of Woodbank house ”
Of course reading the small print this is not a full planning application. Rather it is a PPiP. Ergo –
“As the Applicants are seeking PPiP rather than full planning permission, at this stage the proposed
development comprises a suite of key parameters, within which the detailed design of the proposed development
will be confirmed at a later date.”
Quite why Flamingo Land are only, after all this time, submitting a skeleton outline PPiP approach, which can be changed later, is a big question. Could it be that based upon the granting of this Scottish Enterprise will then transfer the land ownership to them for the undisclosed but understood to be peppercorn sum. And if granted PPiP will they then be able to change the plan extensively.
Of course with a housing development buried in the PPIP, ergo the 21 apartments, what is there to say that some of the lodges will not be changed to houses for sale. Flamingo Land after all is a property developer, and loch side properties are big business.
Meanwhile the land owned by Scottish Enterprise is under wraps due to them having having agreed missives with Flamingo Land for the land’s transfer to them. Stitched up like a kipper it would seem, it isn’t only Margaret Thatcher who sold of the country’s silver to her corporate business chums.
There’s a smell, a bad smell about all of this. Money talks, and iconic public land it seems comes cheap. How cheap you may ask. Well that’s a secret.