Three consecutive days of strikes next week

Argyll, along with the rest of Scotland, will see three consecutive days of strikes next week. Workers belonging to the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) are to stage 24-hour walkouts on Tuesday (7th October) and Thursday (9th October). The Union warns that rail passengers travelling on those days will experience ‘severe disruption’.

Sandwiched between those days of rail strikes, members of the unions representing local authority workers, Unite, Unison and GMB, are planning to strike on Wednesday (6th October). As we reported earlier, the planned action this time will be on a different scale from each of the two days of action already seen. The unions’ strategy now is to impact upon selected public services in each of a series of actions. It is thought that next Wednesday’s action will focus on call-centres.

Breaking news (2nd October): It is now reported – in relation to the local authority workers’ strike on 6th October, that two Labour-led Councils, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, have been exploring a modestly increased offer to 3% – 3.5%. Their move is said to be supported by some other Labour minority-led Councils. The Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) says that a figure of 2.75% has been discussed but that any rise above the current offer of 2.5% would impact negatively on jobs and services.