Having submitted a pay claim for (the better of) £1.60/hour or 7% increase to the Employers’ Organisation (CoSLA) back in August, UNISON Scotland is now asking members to support in principle taking Industrial Action to support the early settlement of our claim, in full.
Emails went out to members first thing on Monday morning. The link provided in the email is only for the member it was sent to, so don’t share it. The link can be used multiple times but only 1 vote will be counted for each link.
With Scottish council elections next May ruling out any negotiations from March until likely late summer, and further drastic hikes in energy prices due in January, we’ve made clear we need an early and significant real terms improvement to our pay.
Despite promises that Austerity is over, Council Workers still have to live off pay that is in many cases worth just 3/4 of its value back in 2009, at the time of the crash. Our claim is just a step on the road back to restoring pay levels to what they were at that time.
The bankers (who cause the crash, and whose bailouts were funded by the austerity years of cuts to our pay) are doing very nicely. The top 4 UK banks earned over £29.2 billion in the first 6 months of this year, having raked in over £200 billion in pre-tax profits over the last 5 years. Energy companies have seen similarly soaring profits, despite aparent crises in energy supply, that have seen houshold bills sky rocket.
We’d be mugs to allow this robbery to continue. Vote yes to support a full ballot for Industrial Action, if the employers won’t/don’t make an early offer of a good real-terms increase in line with our claim.