Local government pay deal shows need for fighting union leadership

Stephen McCann, Glasgow City UNISON, personal capacity

The local government pay claim for this year has been accepted with no industrial action taking place. 83% of Unison members voted to accept.

The improved offer, by 1%, is welcome but workers deserve better. It does show that the threat of industrial action can force the employer to improve their original offer. 

The union’s pay claim was for 6.5%, considering inflation and a level of restoration for the past 15 years when council workers across the country have seen their wages decline by over 20% in real terms.

COSLA’s offer of 3% was outright rejected by Unison’s Local Government committee who then swiftly conducted an online consultative ballot asking members on their willingness to take strike action for an improved offer.

92% of members in Unison voted to take action, which then led to formal industrial ballots. GMB and Unite unions also received strong support for action in their ballots. 

A formal all-member ballot of almost 90,000 Unison members was then conducted. Unison had highlighted to its members and also to COSLA that an offer had already been made to NHS staff of 4.5% and stated “we stressed that any revised offer must match or exceed the NHS settlement”. 

On the final day of the ballot a new offer was presented by COSLA leaders. It consisted of a two-year deal of 4% for 2025/26 and 3.5% for 2026/27. Unison’s local government quickly met and recommended members accept this deal as it had constituted “a significant step forward”. 

This offer by COSLA and the Scottish Government would prevent any action being taken next year by workers during an election year and other significant events that would have given workers leverage to improve their pay and conditions. 

Unison Scotland have claimed the reasons to accept were that the offer exceeds the current rate of inflation and is also above the projected rate of inflation next year. 

This is very misleading and highly speculative to project what inflation might be in ten months time given the ongoing war in the Middle East, Ukraine and the uncertainty in the global economy and the impact of Trump’s tariffs may have. 

This pay award was supposed to be implemented in April when inflation was sitting at 4-4.5%. There is no mention of restoration for previous years pay cuts which was a key part of the claim. Or the fact the offer does not provide parity with other public sector workers in the NHS. 

rejection recommended

Glasgow City Unison, along with some other branches, recommended members rejected the offer and fight on for fair pay.

It was likely though, as Unison Scotland sent out an acceptance message out to members, that many believed that this was the best offer that can be achieved.

Or worse, most who know it is not acceptable but may feel there is no point in continuing the fight when it’s clear their union leadership has no appetite to do so. 

The fact that members will now be tied into a two-year deal when we don’t know what that means in real terms leaves us with another possibility of another pay cut down the road next year. 

We need a change of direction in Unison and a leadership that is willing to take a principled position and fight for better pay and fair funding for services. We need lay-led fighters who will not capitulate to full time officials unwilling to lead and take action when it is required.

The all-member ballot strategy this year was the correct one. We have listened to members who have told us they are fed up with the same selective groups taking action on behalf of the whole workforce.

This year was an opportunity to engage the full membership and allow the biggest possible action to take place to force the employer and the Scottish Government to improve pay, which is the least these workers deserve. It would also allow us to build for future years and campaigns if workers across the council are engaged and involved in the struggle. 

However, it needs to be said the biggest single obstacle workers have are the anti-trade union laws around ballot thresholds of 50% turnout and postal ballots. 

Labour’s failures

Starmer’s Labour Government have been in power for a year now and there is no sign of these laws being overturned.

The Employment Rights Bill is still to be passed and has been significantly watered down. There is no faith in the government that they will repeal the thresholds that hugely stifle workers ability to organise and stand up for their rights.

The very least a Labour government should be doing is to immediately repeal, not just the 2016 anti-trade union laws, but the previous laws imposed on trade unions. 

For years, we’ve had Tory cuts, SNP cuts and now it’s Labour’s turn. Each mainstream party has failed to meet the needs and improve the lives of the working class. We need politicians who are going to stand up for public services. 

We need councillors who will vote for a needs based, no cuts budget and who will join in a fight with the trade unions, activists and community groups for restoration of all cuts, along with a transitional programme based on socialist policies to nationalise all the big industries.

This would ensure a fair redistribution of wealth in a socialist society and an emphasis on need not greed.