Unison look to strike action over pay claim and accuse Carmarthenshire County Council of ‘underhandedness’

A union in Carmarthenshire will be balloting members to take strike action in response to an offer of an increase in pay of 1.75%.

Mark Evans of Unison said:

“From the beginning of December 2021 around 375,000 local Government Unison members will start receiving their ballot forms through their letter boxes asking them to support strike action in pursuit of our reasonable and fair 10% pay claim.

“The employers and the Tory Government final offer was only 1.75%, which when rising inflation is considered would be another real term another pay cut. Many of our members are already struggling to pay the bills and keep their family’s head above water due to the real value of our pay going down by 25% since 2010, so we cannot afford to have the value of our pay cut even further and that’s before national insurance and heating bills go up.

“During the pandemic, the public saw the benefit of council services and the hard work and sacrifice of council and school workers in collecting refuse, keeping service running. Our members played the vital role in track and trace and kept vital services running for our communities but the Tories clap on the doorsteps turned into a slap with the insulting offer above.

“We asked Plaid led Carmarthenshire County Council to support our pay claim we are after all calling on the Tory Government to fund it, but they refused and not only that, but the council is attempting to sabotage our strike by putting in 4 weekly paid staff payslips the amount employees would have received if they had agreed to the derogatory final offer above and then deducting the same sum.

“How underhand can this council leadership get in doing such a thing? Council workers during the pandemic have come to appreciate their worth to society they need and deserve a 10% pay award. Both Unison nationally and our branch are urging all members to vote and to vote yes for action and are calling on the public to support our campaign for council workers to be paid a decent wage for keeping services running.”