More strike misery planned for Monday

Oct 3 2008 by Andrew Newport, Paisley Daily Express

PARTS of Renfrewshire Council will be brought to their knees once again by a fresh round of strikes.

Unions announced another wave of walk-outs just two days after 5,000 staff abandoned their posts to picket the local authority as part of a pay dispute.

Schools were hit, rubbish collections abandoned and local services halted as the strike bit.

However, this time, bosses from trade union Unison say they will target specific areas of the council for walkouts on Monday and say they are unhappy with a 2.5 per cent pay offer and want five per cent instead. Council bosses called for more talks.

The dispute has become increasingly bitter, especially after lead officers at the council were handed a 16.7 per cent pay rise earlier this year.

Passions have run so high that workers at the Montrose Care Home in Foxbar – who are usually given exemption to cross picket lines – decided to walk-out on Wednesday and join their colleagues in the strike action, forcing council chiefs to bring in agency staff to care for elderly Buddies and frail dementia sufferers.

A Unison spokesman said the forthcoming action would target particular services and would involve lower numbers of workers than previous strikes.

He declined to give any indication how long it would last.

Unison Scottish secretary Matt Smith said strike action was “only taken with the greatest of reluctance” and said he hoped the union and COSLA – the local authority umbrella group – could come to a “negotiated settlement”.

However council bosses claim they have already made concessions and the resources are not available to meet the workers’ demands.

COSLA called on the unions to bring more realistic demands to the table. A spokesman said: “We are prepared to meet with the unions at any time. We do not want the people of Scotland inconvenienced by unnecessary strike action.”

He urged the unions to come to any meeting with “a degree of reality in their position”.

“We have moved twice already firstly to get to 2.5 per cent – from 2.2 per cent – and then a one-year deal from three. The unions have not moved an inch.”