West Lothian refuse workers on strike during 2022 (Photo: Twitter @GMBScotOrg)
Council waste workers in large parts of Scotland are set to strike over pay, kicking off a “stinking summer”. Unison, the largest local government union, says workers in 13 council areas will walk out for more than a week from 5am on next Wednesday until 5am on 22 August.
The GMB union and the Unite union both said its members in 18 of the 32 Scottish local authority areas will take action over the same eight days in August, including those at Edinburgh city council who will strike during the capital’s busy summer festival period.
Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, will also be hit with up to 1,000 workers set to strike. The GMB said strikes will mean bins are not emptied “from the smallest villages to the biggest cities”. Three unions—Unison, Unite and the GMB—have all rejected a 3.2 percent pay rise offered by local government bosses’ organisation, Cosla.
Chris Mitchell, convenor for Glasgow GMB, told Socialist Worker, “Every year we get budget cuts. It’s getting so bad that we are seeing an impact on statutory services like cleansing. I’ve made it clear we’ve tried to avoid this, but we’ve come to a point where we have to take action,” he added.
Fringe Refuse workers are essential, especially to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but their pay doesn’t reflect this. “Thousands of tourists descend every year, and it’s up to the lowest paid workers to clean it up,” Chris said.
“We need to use our leverage on the Scottish government to show the importance of these refuse workers. It will take three months to catch up so these strikes will have a massive impact.”
The strikes have caused panic across the councils and the Fringe organisers Chris said. “But I won’t apologise because the Scottish government has had plenty of time to sort this issue.
“We are carrying the can for the rest of Scotland because if we win this pay rise, all other public workers in Scotland will get that same pay rise.” A similar dispute occurred in 2022.
Rubbish piled up in Edinburgh during the festival season, only ending when the Scottish government provided extra funds to councils for workers’ pay. Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland’s senior organiser, said the 3.2 percent offer failed to keep pace with the cost of living and was below the rise offered to council workers in England.
While he said talks with Cosla and the Scottish government had been “constructive”, he added, “Our members are less interested in constructive talks than fair pay.
“The process has gone on too long with too little progress. There is no more time to waste talking about old offers with new wrapping. Enough is enough.”
GPs across England have voted for work-to-rule action, which will see them start capping the number of patients they’re willing to see.
In a ballot, 98 percent of GPs backed industrial action with a turnout of 68 percent.
The results of this non-statutory ballot follow years of intransigence from governments which have been intent on breaking the NHS. GPs want to look after patients, help with health problems locally and provide continuity of care from the cradle to the grave.
But to do all this GPs get just 30p a day for every registered patient. GPs are burning out and leaving the profession.
Practices are closing while the population grows and becomes unhealthier due to the wildness of the system of profit in which we live.
It is a sign of the times that GPs, in the past so reluctant to stand up and fight, have voted so overwhelmingly for action now. Because the NHS independently contracts GPs, the collective action will take several forms.
Patients may notice that it becomes more difficult to get an appointment as GPs cap the number of people they see each day.
They may notice that waits for hospital appointments get longer or that access to specialist drugs is more difficult as GPs say that they will no longer fill service gaps left by the underfunded hospitals.
This decision has not been taken lightly. No one wants to make things more difficult than they already are for patients. But the choice is stark. Either GPs stand up to defend general practice or it will disappear.
We need to get behind GPs, junior doctors, nurses and all health workers fighting for fair pay and proper services, including social care. We can’t rely on the Labour government.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has quickly dialed down expectations, cancelling the building of new hospitals rather than taxing the rich and big business.
We must hold Labour’s feet to the fire and fight for an NHS that is publicly funded, publicly provided and free at the point of delivery. The collective action of GPs is part of this struggle.
Jackie Applebee
Workers at Goldsmiths, University of London, are set for continuous strikes from Monday 23 September. It is part of the long-running dispute over the university’s brutal redundancy programme.
Around 86 percent of UCU union members who took part in a ballot to extend the current industrial action voted in favour, with a turnout of 62 percent.
The dispute continues due to devastating cuts the university is set to make, with over 90 members of staff at risk of losing their jobs before the start of the next academic year in September.
Originally, over 130 staff were going to be made redundant, including more than one in six academics.
Goldsmiths UCU members recently struck for ten days, ending on 28 June. They are also holding a marking and assessment boycott.
Goldsmiths’ bosses are trying to close ground-breaking courses such as black British literature, black British history and queer history.
St Andrews University has removed its first black, female rector because she spoke about the Israeli slaughter in Gaza.
Stella Maris sent an email to all students referring to “genocidal attacks” by the Israeli government.
An investigation found she had “breached her responsibilities” to students, but Maris said it set a “dangerous precedent for freedom of speech”.
She will no longer sit as president of the university court, its highest governing body.
Maris said her removal showed “a lack of respect” for the rector’s role in speaking independently for students. She added, “I have been removed from court because I called for an end to Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, and I will not apologise for doing so.
“As a young, neurodiverse black woman with limited financial resources, I have faced the full force of the university, all because I made a statement supported by the overwhelming majority of students, calling for an end to a genocide.”
Hundreds of healthcare assistants (HCAs) at five hospitals across Leicester and Northamptonshire are set to strike throughout August. They have already held 19 strike days.
Unison union members are furious that for years they have been wrongly placed on the band 2 pay scale, making them some of the poorest workers in the NHS. That’s despite many of them performing clinical duties as well as assisting patients with personal care.
The NHS trust has already agreed to move most HCAs from NHS band 2 to band 3. That will see many long standing workers adding around £2,000 a year to their salary.
But, as in most other HCA disputes across England, the real question is how many years of backpay will the bosses cough up?
Refuse workers in Kent are voting on strikes over pay equality.
Suez Recycling and Recovery Ltd took over the waste contract from Biffa in March 2024 across Ashford, Swale and Maidstone councils.
The company is offering workers in Swale and Ashford a pay deal in some cases more than £1 per hour lower than the deal offered to those working in Maidstone. The GMB union ballot began last week and closes on 19 August.
Offshore drivers are poised for strikes next week.
RMT union members, who are covered by the Offshore Diving Industry Agreement (ODIA), have overwhelmingly backed action.
The union has called for two months of strikes from Wednesday of next week to 14 October. The RMT says its members’ pay had fallen behind in real terms in 2015 when they accepted not getting a pay rise in favour of protecting jobs during the downturn in oil and gas prices.
During the same period, they sacrificed all but two bank holidays on the basis that this would be redressed when things improved. But this has never happened.
Union leaders postponed a strike due to take place at Asda in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, on Friday of last week. Bosses agreed to talks at the Acas arbitration body with the GMB union.
Workers are angry over a series of issues, including cuts in hours, poor quality training, bullying by management and health and safety issues.
The Unite union has launched a nationwide campaign to try to ensure that hospitality workers receive fair pay and fair tips.
The campaign will focus on ensuring that workers understand their rights and have the support and tools they need to collectively enforce those rights.
It will also name and shame rogue employers who try to ignore or distort tipping laws.
The PCS union has rejected a pay offer for its staff in the Submarine Delivery Agency.
The move came after PCS union negotiators felt the bosses’ offer fell short of the PCS national pay claim that was submitted in February. The union is looking to improve the offer. The best way to do so is to strike.
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