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Council workers to vote on strike as 2% pay offer could turn a ‘crisis into a catastrophe’ for many families

Council workers will vote on industrial action as their pay  fails to keep up with the cost of living. Supplied by: Danny Lawson/PA Wire
Council workers will vote on industrial action as their pay fails to keep up with the cost of living. Supplied by: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Nearly 10,000 council workers could strike over pay.

Union members – including those in schools, early years, waste and cleaning services – will be consulted after being offered a 2% pay rise by Cosla.

By comparison, council leaders were awarded a 5.2% increase.

Today GMB will send a statutory notice to Colsa, advising that an industrial action ballot will run from June 6 until July 26.

All members across local government will be invited to vote.

According to GMB Aberdeen, most public sector workers across the north-east are struggling to keep up with the cost of living.

GMB Scotland senior organiser Keir Greenaway warned that tens of thousands of the “lowest paid staff” in local government will strike unless their pay “confronts soaring inflation and eye-watering energy bills”.

He accused political leaders of “sleeping at the wheel and blaming each other” rather than addressing the issue.

“Let’s be clear a pay rise of just 2% for the workers earning under £25,000 a year is worth no more than a tenner a week,” he said.

“It will turn a crisis into a catastrophe for many working families and there is no trade union worth its salt that would leave that unchallenged.

“Unless Cosla comes back to the negotiating table with a vastly improved offer that reflects the fact our members are working in the biggest cost-of-living crisis in forty years then industrial action looks inevitable.”

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