A GREAT deal has been written about the unprecedented number of strikes which have taken place across sectors of the economy since we moved out of the pandemic.

It was in March 2020, just before lockdown, that the broadcaster, author and DJ (all-round polymath) Stuart Maconie wrote in his book The Nanny State Made Me about just how many services we rely on and the need for them to be properly invested in.  

Millions of those workers who were the backbone of the country during the pandemic and beyond would have rightfully thought they would not be forced to use their industrial muscle to gain better pay. How wrong they were, and strike action has been taken in record numbers.

Next week in local government in Scotland there will be more strike action from September 26-28 with school staff taking to the picket lines. It is Unison Scotland’s strongest strike mandate in decades within school staff which will cover 21,000 workers in almost 2,000 schools across 24 local authority areas.

This totals 76 per cent of schools in Scotland. These staff cover a wide range of duties including school cleaners, caterers, janitors and school support staff.

This is on top of action already taken by waste workers in Stirling, Perth and Kinross last month. What all of these workers are doing is leading our action on behalf of all our workers for a fair pay settlement with Cosla, a settlement which should have been in workers’ pay packets on April 1 2023.

No industrial action is taken lightly: these workers feel that they have been forced to as no decent offer has been presented.

The background is sadly familiar with a 5 per cent offer being tabled to the unions (Unison, Unite and GMB) within local government from Cosla.

With inflation at 12 per cent and the cost-of-living crisis continuing to create so much hardship and worry for Scottish households, it is no wonder that our mandate to strike was so strong. Despite repeated attempts to get Cosla to go back to the Scottish government for increased funding (which they did last year), no attempts have been made.  

It is a truly sad state of affairs that 75 per cent of local government workers earn less than the average Scottish wage. Yet an offer presented just last week by Cosla to the unions, in an attempt to avert strike action, only added 0.17 per cent.

This would represent, on the lowest pay, an increase of £0.01 per hour effective from January 1 2024. For any of our workers who earn above £25,000 it would do nothing. It’s so clear that Cosla needs to approach the Scottish government as a matter of urgency so that an improved offer can be forthcoming.

We know that, and Cosla must know that, so the refusal so far to go to Holyrood is frustrating, to say the least. We cannot let the Scottish government talk about being a Fair Work Nation by 2025 while not providing funding that would enable moves towards this for our workers.   

The services provided across local government are vast, ranging from education, social work, waste collection, planning, income generation and collection, libraries, leisure centres, housing and so on. Services which have suffered the brunt of cuts under austerity and the cost-of-living pressures.

Unison members in local government have seen more demand for their services and know first-hand the impact that these services have in our communities across Scotland to aid health and wellbeing.

They help to provide a safety net for so many people, never more so than now. But we need to be properly funded: robbing Peter to pay Paul, which seems to be a constant within local government, is not viable anymore.

We have been subjected to a rolling programme of cuts for well over a decade and we are at breaking point. People in our communities know when they are up against it they can turn to public services, be it in social care, social work or housing.

But these services are not run by AI robots, but by people who deserve fair pay and who also are service users living in the community. The current offer on the table just doesn’t cut it.

It is no wonder that there is a recruitment and retention crisis in so many local government areas of work. Pay has to be attractive along with having the opportunity for a career path.

Public-sector work is a force for good, it is the mark of a civilised society. As Maconie stated in the concluding chapter of his book: “The people who complain about the nanny state are the people who had nannies.”  

The need for increased investment in work and the workforce is real and needed more than ever.

So, if you are passing your local schools next week on September 26-28 and see the picket line, please show your support with loud cheers and beeps from your car.