Fresh waste workers' strikes in the Highlands and elsewhere are ‘direct response to political failure’ on council staff pay
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GMB Scotland has announced this morning further strike dates affecting waste and recycling services across Scottish local government including in the Highlands.
The news came as council chiefs met again to agree a new pay offer for staff.
Two four-day strikes have been confirmed in all waste and recycling services where statutory mandates for action were secured.
The strikes will run from Friday, August 26, to Monday, August 29, and Wednesday, September 7, to Saturday, September 10.
It follows last week’s announcement that GMB members in the City of Edinburgh Council waste and recycling service will join strike action running from Thursday, August 18, to Tuesday, August 30.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Keir Greenaway said: “Unless COSLA and the Scottish Government make a significantly improved pay offer, more strikes will start across councils in just a few weeks.
“Both parties are squabbling while more of our members struggle with debt, fuel poverty, and hunger, exposing a huge gulf between politics and frontline workers.
"This is only increasing anger and fear among our members – anger over the lack of value shown to them and fear about what winter will bring in this cost-of-living crisis.
“Make no mistake, these strikes are a direct response from our extraordinary key workers to months of political failure. They are not prepared to accept working poverty as an inevitability even if Scotland’s political leaders are.”
