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Striking BT workers form pickets in Portlethen, Elgin, Inverness and Thurso

BT workers on strike at Badentoy Drive in Portlethen.
Picture by Kath Flannery.
BT workers on strike at Badentoy Drive in Portlethen. Picture by Kath Flannery.

Striking BT workers have formed picket lines in Portlethen, Elgin, Inverness and Thurso.

They joined 6,000 Communications Workers Union (CWU) from across Scotland in a day of action over pay.

Altogether in the UK, 40,000 BT and Openreach call centre workers and engineers walked out.

The CWU said it is the biggest ever strike among call centre workers.

Another day of action is planned for Monday.

BT have issued workers every worker with a £1,500 pay rise, regardless of salary, and said it “won’t be reopening the pay review”.

Portlethen: ‘Offer is ridiculous’

Neale Freeman, 48, is the CWU secretary for the north-east.

He attended the picket in Portlethen today. He said: “The £1,500 increase, for some, it equates to something like 3% increase which is ridiculous.

“With the cost of living crisis that we’re facing at the moment it is simply not enough.

Strikers in Portlethen. Picture by Kath Flannery

“The union as a collective are asking for a 10% pay increase across the board.”

According to the latest Office for National Statistics report, inflation has been 9.4% in the last 12 months.

On Thursday, BT revealed its first sales growth for five years as more people sign up for fibre-optic broadband.

CWU has claimed that the company has made £400million profit in the past three months.

The BT dispute is just one of the several strikes that has been taking place across the country this summer.

Elgin: ‘We maintained essential services’

Stephen Reynolds, 63, has worked for BT since 1975. He attended the last strike that telecom workers had in 1987.

BT strikers in Elgin. Supplied by Stephen Reynolds.

He said: “Everyone in the union was balloted and around 90% of the workers have voted to strike.

“None of us were furloughed during the pandemic, we had to come in and work and maintain essential services. We are talking about the broadband network, the telephone exchange network, the network which goes to all the local communities.

“So over the last couple of years, we didn’t push hard at all for pay rises because of the pandemic.

“And considering this work we put in over the last couple of years, most people think it’s a bit unfair.”

Thurso: ‘We don’t want to strike’

Iain Thomson, 35, from Thurso has been working for BT for six years. He attended the picket in his hometown.

Strikers in Thurso. Supplied by Iain Thomson.

He said: “Well, my heart genuinely does go out to customers and I understand how frustrating that could be. But the only thing I try and get across to them is that myself and my colleagues don’t want to be in this position.

“We don’t want to be on strike.

“We would much rather be out there helping people like we normally do.”

Strikes also took place in Inverness and Oban.

Strikers in Inverness. Supplied by Robert Woolley.

No negotiation

A BT Group spokesman said: “We have confirmed to the CWU that we won’t be reopening the 2022 pay review, having already made the best award we could.

“When it became clear that we were not going to reach an accord, we took the decision to go ahead with awarding our team member and frontline colleagues the highest pay award in more than 20 years, effective April 1.

“We’re balancing the complex and competing demands of our stakeholders and that includes making once-in-a-generation investments to upgrade the country’s broadband and mobile networks, vital for the UK economy and for BT Group’s future – including our people.”

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