Binmen to strike during COP26 over pay dispute

REFUSE workers in Glasgow are set to strike during the COP26 climate summit unless they are given a pay rise.

Union members have voted in favour of industrial action in response to the latest pay offer from the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla).

The city now faces the prospect of piles of rubbish being left in the street at the time world leaders arrive and the eyes of the media fall on Glasgow.

Politicians say the situation will lead to ‘chaos’ and see Scotland ‘humiliated on the world stage’.

Workers have given Cosla until Monday to come up with an ‘improved offer’ to avoid the strike. Union rep Chris Mitchell posted a video on social media to send a ‘clear message’ to Cosla. He said: ‘We were called Covid heroes, we were called critical workers and essential workers.

‘This is when low-paid workers take a stance against Cosla and say enough is enough, because these heroes deserve a decent pay rise.’

Last month, 95 per cent of members who participated in the GMB’s consultative ballot turned down an £850 increase for local government staff earning up to £25,000 a year.

The union then moved to the full industrial ballot of members employed in schools and local refuse and cleansing services.

Workers are also calling for 100 more refuse collectors and 100 more street sweepers, as well as 78 new community enforcement officers ‘with the power to issue penalty notices’ for flytipping and littering.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: ‘This must be a wake-up call for Cosla and the Scottish Government to start taking these negotiations more seriously.

‘Scotland is set to be humiliated on the world stage because of the SNP’s disregard for workers. Everything from refuse collection to public transport will be plunged into chaos during COP26 if they do not stand up for workers fighting for fair pay.’

Glasgow City Council has already been criticised for the state of the streets as piles of rubbish mount up and flytipping escalates.

Council leader Susan Aitken then came under fire for refuting the streets of Glasgow were filthy and just needed a ‘spruce up’. But the problem has become so bad that three refuse collectors were attacked by rats.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: ‘Holding this action only in Glasgow at this time will have disproportionate and unfair local impact in pursuit of a national campaign. We urge them to think again.’

A Cosla spokesman said: ‘We continue with on-going negotiations.’

Scottish Conservative local government spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘The resources simply haven’t been provided to bin workers to help them clean up Glasgow.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Pay settlements for council workers (excluding teachers) are a matter for Cosla.’

‘These heroes deserve a pay rise’

COP26 was supposed to be about looking to the future of the planet, but it is beginning to resemble Britain’s strike-ridden industrial past.

The climate summit, to be hosted by the Prime Minister in Glasgow, will bring world leaders including President Biden for talks running from October 31 to November 12.

It is an opportunity to address a major environmental problem and to promote Glasgow and Scotland on the world stage.

The decision by ScotRail staff to go on strike during the conference is the kind of cynical opportunism that gives decent trade unionism a bad name.

In doing so, the RMT will disrupt the working days of tens of thousands of commuters – and signal to the COP26 delegates that Scotland’s transport network is unreliable.

Among those delegates will be foreign heads of state and world-leading entrepreneurs – people who, provided a good first impression is made, might bring investment and jobs to our shores.

Nothing could be more lethal to those prospects than the unions deciding, just in time for Halloween, to dress up as the Winter of Discontent.

Memories of the industrial relations of the 1970s cannot help but rear their ugly head, for the RMT was not the only union to announce strike action yesterday.

The Glasgow branch of the GMB, which represents the city’s binmen, will also strike during COP26.

Undoubtedly these workers have been put through the wringer by the city’s waste crisis. They face an SNP council leader who says Glasgow merely requires a ‘spruce up’. Indeed, Susan Aitken seems incapable of opening her mouth about the matter without swiftly inserting her foot.

Glasgow City Council’s shift from two-to three-weekly collections and introduction of uplift charges has driven an upsurge in fly-tipping and binmen are understandably frustrated with her hapless leadership.

However, they would lose significant public sympathy by going on strike with bins and streets already overflowing with rubbish. They should not make ordinary Glaswegians suffer for the ineptitude of a SNP-run council.

It is vital that unions and management get around the table to resolve both these disputes before they inflict misery on passengers and council taxpayers and embarrass Scotland in the glare of the world’s media.

The Scottish Government cannot wash its hands of this burgeoning industrial crisis. If Nicola Sturgeon wants to bask in the spotlight of COP26, her government will have to do the less glamorous work of making sure Scotland’s rail and refuse services are ready for it.