Bin strikes in Scotland have spread as workers walked out in more areas.
GMB Scotland members in 16 council areas are taking four days of action from Friday until Monday, coinciding with existing action in Edinburgh.
It comes after Unite members working in waste services at 13 councils walked out on Wednesday, joining workers in Edinburgh who began strike action on August 18.
Unions have already rejected a 5% pay rise – funded in part with £140 million of Scottish Government cash – claiming it is insufficient in the face of rampant inflation and soaring bills.
Waste workers in Edinburgh have been on strike since August 18 (Jane Barlow/PA)
GMB Scotland senior organiser for public services, Keir Greenaway, said: “GMB members are clear that they are not prepared to accept working poverty as an inevitability and their strike actions are a direct response to the failure of political leaders to realise this.”
Talks between local government body Cosla, trade unions and the Scottish Government took place on Thursday.
Speaking afterwards, Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “Whilst the Scottish Government has no formal role in the negotiations, we continue to work collaboratively with Cosla and the trades unions and met them today for continued discussions.
“I welcome the commitment from all parties to continue talks to find a fair and sustainable settlement that will bring an end to the ongoing industrial action.
“I want to ensure an early resolution and that will only come about if there’s intense dialogue. The Scottish Government has facilitated that today.
“We are doing all we can within the resources available to us in the face of the cost-of-living emergency and have provided an extra £140 million on a recurring basis to support a higher pay award.”
Edinburgh’s waste workers in Unite are set to strike until August 30, while in the other 13 council areas industrial action will continue until August 31.
Unite members in waste services who are currently taking strike action will take another eight days of action from September 6 to 13, while a further five local authorities – Aberdeenshire, Dumfries and Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, Fife and North Ayrshire – will join the second phase of strike action.
The union’s members in schools and early years services across seven councils – Angus, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, and South Lanarkshire – are also scheduled to take strike action from September 6 to 9.
📣Schools Update
Nurseries, primaries and ASL schools will close on 6, 7 and 8 Sept due to industrial action.
Letters have been sent to all families today (25 Aug), with details and we will post any updates as soon as we have them.
Read the letter 👉🏻 https://t.co/hWLyhtOo3O pic.twitter.com/LEuCSDCfBD
— Glasgow City Council 🇺🇦 (@GlasgowCC) August 25, 2022
Glasgow City Council said on Thursday its nurseries, primaries and additional support for learning (ASL) schools will be closed from September 6 to 8 due to industrial action.
GMB Scotland waste and recycling members are taking strike action in Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Falkirk, Glasgow, Inverclyde, Highland, Midlothian, Orkney, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian, Perth and Kinross and North Lanarkshire.
It said four more days of strikes in waste and recycling services will run from Wednesday September 7 to Saturday September 10, alongside three days of strike action on September 6, 7 and 8 involving GMB schools and early years services members in Glasgow City and East Renfrewshire councils.
Unite waste services members are currently striking in Edinburgh, Aberdeen City, Angus, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Glasgow, Highland, Inverclyde, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel