THE council refuse collectors deserve every penny they can get when faced with the horrendous UK cost-of-living crisis. However, judging from a very one-sided BBC Radio Scotland phone-in on Tuesday, the Scottish Government is failing to get the facts out, as this programme was dominated by a union official, a Labour councillor and a Tory supporter who all slated the SNP without any counter argument, not helped by a presenter who was clearly out of her depth and made no reference to the Cosla background to the pay award.
Negotiations and the state of Edinburgh’s streets would be one week better off if the SNP councillors had not been outvoted on the Cosla motion to propose a 5% pay increase on August 12 by the Labour, Tory and LibDem councillors who pushed through a measly 3.5% proposal. This included Edinburgh Labour leader Cammy Day, despite the fact that that Edinburgh’s outgoing SNP finance convener had left a ring-fenced 4.5% amount to deal with the long-simmering pay dispute.
READ MORE: Edinburgh Unionist bin strike photo op gets unexpected reaction from public
It was only on the casting vote of the SNP Cosla leader that a 5% offer plus an uplift to the local authority living wage to £10.50 an hour was agreed last Friday after Labour and Tory councillors voted to delay any new proposal, no doubt for political reasons.
The 10% pay award for council workers in England quoted by Unite officials is nonsense, as a flat £1925 was offered for all workers, which is only 10% if you earn less than £20,000. The minimum Cosla offer – £10.50/hour for a 40-hour week – works out at £21,840 a year whereas the average bin collection worker in England currently earns £18,193 a year, increasing to £20,118 after the £1925 pay increase. Also, lower-paid workers, particularly those with families, are much better off thanks to the Scottish Government’s welfare provisions than their English counterparts.
READ MORE: John Swinney slams Cosla leaders over pay dispute
Quoted in an article in Business Insider, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Government is treating councils fairly and providing a real-terms increase of 6.3% to local authority budgets this year, as well as providing an extra £140m of funding on a recurring basis to support a higher pay award for council staff.”
Those who try to blame the Scottish Government should note that the block grant for this year was fixed by the Treasury in London long before the UK cost-of-living crisis, and that under devolution the Scottish Government is legally obliged to balance its books each year with very limited borrowing powers which are not geared to cope with inflation mainly caused by successive Westminster governments’ failed energy policies.
As a net exporter of electricity, oil and gas plus massive cheaper renewable energy potential, there is no reason why Scotland should be caught up in the UK’s energy disaster, which is made worse by a Brexit supported by Labour. As Unionists pile in on the council workers dispute, the SNP is badly losing the publicity war.
Fraser Grant
Edinburgh
IN South Lanarkshire, as in other councils, industrial action is managed by a variety of trade unions often fighting each other for membership. Unity, Unison and the GMB all represent cleansing staff and each union has different strike dates. Not one of the three wants to accept the 5% yet, but they will. For none of them want to blink first and play the acceptance card Why? Loss of face and membership. Inter-union rivalry is at the heart of much strike action. The railways have four unions, the airlines five, and general workers can have several hunting for the membership dues.
The sanitation strike crippling Edinburgh at the heart of the festival is partly caused by this culture of fierce inter-union rivalry.
Thomas Mitchell
Carluke
SOME people are complaining about anti-Tory protesters who lose the head whilst watching these Tories going in to a meeting to discuss how they are the best candidate to make poor people even poorer. Have the complainers ever had to worry about where their next penny is coming from? I think not. The working class have been far too compliant with the Tories in all parties.
It is the workers who make the profits, not the bosses, but because people don’t join their unions the Tories are now in a position to allow people to die from cold or starvation – and we mustn’t get angry. That’s right folks, bow and scrape till you die but don’t get angry.
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Yes, we should treat others with respect regardless of their views, but not when those views will result in deaths, so get off your high horses and put yourselves in the shoes of those who are suffering. And may I say that if the SNP go ahead with “freeports”, which will take more revenue from the people, I doubt that they will ever be voted in again.
Rosemary Smith
East Kilbride
FIRST of all let me say I am totally in support of the strikers who deserve to be paid a decent wage. I am becoming a bit confused about who is responsible for paying them and all the other public sector workers. I see it becoming a blame game.
Who pays the waste workers? As I understand it the local councils pay most of the public-sector workers and they receive money from the Scottish Government and from council tax. Have they any other means of acquiring income? Can they borrow money or any other ways of raising money?
Now the same questions can be asked of the Scottish Government. I know they get a fixed sum of money from the UK Government and they have very limited borrowing powers. So just like the councils, they have a lot to do with the money at their disposal.
I am left with the conclusion that it all goes back to Westminster and how much it gives to Scotland to run the country.
M Forrest
West Kilbride
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