Latest editorial
Overflowing bins on the streets of Edinburgh where cleansing workers from the City of Edinburgh Council are on strike, August 29, 2022
“At local level, it’s different."
LOW-PAID cleansing and waste services workers across Scotland’s councils could walk out in the coming weeks after they voted to reject pay cuts.
A total of 23 of Scotland’s 32 councils have seen either GMB or Unite, or both unions win mandates for strike action as thousands of workers in waste services rejected a subinflation pay offer from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) of 2.2 per cent from April 1 to September 30 followed by 2 per cent in the following year.
The GMB won a ballot in 13 authorities, including Edinburgh, and the union’s senior organiser for public services, Keir Greenaway, has warned of a repeat of the 2022 dispute which saw rubbish pile-up during the Edinburgh Festivals.
There are only two things that stand between workers and the musket’s volley today - the ballot and the union, asserts MATT KERR
