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Council workers man the picket lines in pay strike

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Published Date: 16 July 2008
COUNCIL workers mounted picket lines outside schools, libraries, museums, sports centres and refuse collection depots today as they launched a 48-hour strike in a bitter dispute over pay.
Unison and Unite said they expected more than half a million workers to join the stoppage today and Thursday, in protest at a rejected 2.45 per cent pay offer.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the action would be one of the biggest since the General Strike of 1926.

He said: "Local government employers are sitting on £3 billion worth of efficiency savings they could use to settle the strike now."

Meanwhile, the Public and Commercial Services union warned up to 5000 driving tests could be cancelled by the end of today because of a strike by more than of its 1500 members working for the Driving Standards Agency.

Following on from today and tomorrow's industrial action by driving test examiners, Friday will see PCS members in the Home Office stage a one-day strike and staff in the Land Registry walking out for two hours.

Friday will also see coastguards start a 48-hour stoppage in protest at a below-inflation pay deal.





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  • Last Updated: 16 July 2008 1:36 PM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Jed Smith,

Moscow 16/07/2008 15:28:15

Will I get fined if I put the bin bag out tonight?

Or worse, will someone tape to it an A4 page written in Comic sans 12pt saying "Please DO NOT leave your bin bags in the street as it attracts vermin and it is unsightly and I'm ASHAMED as it is to live in a tenement beside YOUS SCUM"
2

Proximaking,

Aberdeen 16/07/2008 17:17:58
I didn't hear them complaining the last ten years when their salaries moved 30% ahead of equivalent jobs in the private sector. And I don't hear them complaining now that they have index linked pensions completely unheard of now in the private sector. What are the figures again? Something like 20% of council tax and a huge proportion of the NHS budget goes on inflation proofing worker's pensions while those who pay the taxes increasingly have no pension provisions whatsoever. Hugely higher sickness levels, skiving off work opportunities, and no possibility of sacking incompetants or chancers because they are from minorities of all kinds and it would be racist/sexist/one-legged-hippo-polo-playing-jugglerist or whatever to get rid of them so they are promoted to non-jobs instead. Look at the nonsense in the Met now with people complaining they can't get the top jobs when in reality if they were white males they wouldn't even be at half the grades they have all been given so quickly. This nonsense simply can't go on. If Gordon Brown can't beat them with these advantages he doesn't deserve to be prime minister, ....... and yes it is a game, it's called screwing the taxpayer. llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
3

KampungHighlander,

Jakarta 16/07/2008 18:04:35
Thank you Scotsman for drawing everyones attention to the fact that Council Workers will be on strike for the next 48 hours. Without you making us all aware nobody may have noticed.
4

union member,

Glasgow 17/07/2008 14:21:12
The level of accuracy of proximaking's comment can no doubt be judged by the fact that s/he hasn't noticed that the News is reporting action in England, Wales and NI - not in Scotland. We'll be out next month, if democracy provides.

From his/her ill-informed and bitter comments, it is clear that s/he belongs to a minority as well - those people who hate everyone else!

FYI Local government has had below inflation awards over the past few years. 2.5% last year, whilst between April 07 and April 08 private sector earnings (including bonuses) increased by 3.2%.

The main featherbedded workforce isn't in your city chambers, its in city boadrooms

Big city bonuses/boardroom bonanzas continue unabated while public sector workers, who do the jobs most people don’t want to do, face pay restraint.

The 2008 National Management Survey found that the incidence of bonus payments is almost universal among directors, with 85.1% receiving an extra payment. The average value of a bonus to this group was 45.5% of salary, or a whopping £78,649.

AND they get 'gold-plated pensions' the public sector worker can only dream about!

 

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