Refuse workers in more than a dozen Scottish councils go on strike
The refuse workers’ strike, which has left mounds of rubbish in central Edinburgh, has spread to more than a dozen Scottish councils, with industrial action set to hit schools and nurseries early next month.
The strikes went ahead on Wednesday after a further round of talks between council leaders and public sector unions on Tuesday failed to reach any agreement on a pay dispute affecting about 155,000 council workers.
Bin workers went on strike in some councils on Wednesday; others are due out on Friday, and in early September cleaning, janitorial, catering and pupil support workers in schools and early years services will strike for three days. Councils from Orkney to Inverclyde are affected.
Trade union leaders have accused the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), the Scottish National party-led umbrella group for Scotland’s 32 councils, of failing to grasp the severity of the cost of living crisis. Most of their members earn less than £25,000 a year.
John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister and acting finance secretary, is due to meet union and Cosla leaders later on Wednesday to help resolve the dispute but earlier refused to accept that councils needed more money.
He recently gave councils an extra £140m to help fund the better pay offer but Cosla leaders and the unions believe the Scottish government has to provide more funding to secure an end to the strikes.
Speaking to reporters as he unveiled Scotland’s public spending figures for last year, which showed councils received only 1.8% more overall, Swinney said he “faced a multiplicity of difficult financial challenges and demands”.
Keir Greenaway, a senior organiser for GMB Scotland, which organised the strike by Edinburgh’s refuse workers, said it
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