COUNCIL services in Stirling were all but halted yesterday by the first all-out strike to hit a Scottish local authority since local government re-organisation.
The public service union Unison, which is locked in a dispute with Stirling Council over compulsory redundancies, claimed near-100% support for the one-day stoppage.
More than 1000 Unison members took part.
Union regional officer John Fair said only agreed emergency cover in services such as social work, housing, and environmental health was operated.
Schools were unaffected by the action but all but six of the council's libraries were closed, as was the Rainbow Slides swimming pool in Stirling.
Bin-men and street cleaners in the town refused to work, though council bosses claimed that refuse collection in country districts was unaffected.
An official picket line of six strikers backed by 200 supporters turned away even mail deliveries from the council's headquarters at Viewfield, Stirling.
Unison steward Angela McGibbon said only the council's chief executive, Mr Keith Yates, two directors, and one Tory councillor had crossed the picket line to go to work yesterday morning.
A handful of non-union staff later joined the three executives.
Labour councillors refused to cross the picket line, resulting in a planned meeting of the council's economic development committee being abandoned.
Unison branch secretary Margaret Innes said 40 other council offices and depots were also picketed.
Several hundred council workers marched through the centre of Stirling to a rally at the town's Albert Halls.
Unison and the council are locked in a dispute over 20 compulsory redundancies.
Council bosses say the job cuts are necessary to make savings of #500,000 in the financial year.
Union branch secretary Margaret Innes said that 500 Stirling Council jobs had disappeared over the past two years.
She said: ''It's pure intransigence on the part of the council.
''Unison have put three proposals to them to save the money they need without compulsory job cuts, and they haven't even afforded us a reply.''
The council's chief executive Keith Yates said it was ''regrettable'' that Unison had chosen to take industrial action.
He claimed progress was being made in discussions to minimise the effect of redundancies on council services.
He said: ''The council agreed, as part of the budget decisions taken in March, that its prime duty was to deliver services to the public while maintaining a balanced budget.''
Unison is planning further disruption for next Friday. Unison's Mr Fair said: ''We'll be progressing this dispute and that progression is likely to lead to further action. We're not quite clear yet exactly what that further action will be, but there certainly will be further action unless the authority comes back and talks to us.''
Redundant Stirling Council worker Paul Lavin challenged Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar to come clean about New Labour's plans for Scottish councils.
He said: ''My message to Donald Dewar is that Labour councils were elected on manifesto pledges to maintain jobs and services, but that has not happened.
''The Labour Government has refused to address the cuts made in the years of Tory rule. Unless the Scottish Secretary is going to adequately fund local government in Scotland, he should be honest with us and tell us and the Scottish people what our future is - is there a future for us, or are we going to be, to quote Tony Blair, only parish councils?''
And last night, there was a warning of unrest spreading in Scottish local government.
Joint union branch secretary at Falkirk Council, Mr Chris Heriot, said: ''There are troubled times ahead. The word we're getting is that this round of cuts is going to be surpassed by next year's round, and I think that the way the Government is talking we're going to see more and more industrial unrest in local government and elsewhere.''
Workers at Falkirk Council are to be balloted over industrial action next week in a dispute of the use of private finance initiatives (PFIs).
Mr Heriot claimed that use of PFIs would effectively mean the ''privatisation'' of four secondary schools and a special needs school in Falkirk.
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