This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
UNIONS demanded “less talk and more action” from SNP ministers on workers’ pay today, as 50,000 employees in Scotland joined “walkout Wednesday” across Britain.
Up to 500,000 civil servants, teachers, higher education staff and train and bus drives downed tools nationwide, demanding an end to years of attacks on wages, jobs and working conditions.
Holyrood was closed to visitors as some Scottish government and Parliament staff were part of a massive strike of 100,000 civil servants, represented by the PCS union.
Parliamentary business continued, but some Labour and Green MSPs boycotted both physical and virtual sittings.
The walkout, which also saw disruption to courts and tribunals, coincided with rolling action by the EIS union across schools.
Higher education workers downed tools as part of a long-running dispute over pensions, pay and conditions, with members of the University and College Union at the majority of Scotland’s universities striking.
And cross-border train services suffered as Aslef and RMT train drivers took industrial action.
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer argued that while there was a “clear difference” between the Holyrood and Westminster governments in their handling of strikes, more action is needed from the SNP administration.
Hitting out at Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the union body’s leader told BBC Radio Scotland: “At UK level we have a billionaire that refuses to even talk to trade unions.
“Up here at least we have a government that is willing to get in the room and talk, but we still have some very serious, outstanding disputes.
“Our teachers, our civil servants and others are still waiting for a decent pay offer to be put on the table. We need less talk and more action now from the Scottish government.”
Ms Foyer noted that the civil servants walking out north of the border have been “waiting for a decent pay offer from last April.
“It is with a very heavy heart workers take strike action, we take no joy in this, but we do want to show that workers can stand up and take action, and that action can make a difference.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has echoed claims from Tory ministers that inflation-matching pay rises are “unaffordable,” but the SNP leader has pledged to continue negotiations with unions.
