Day of Action – Inverclyde report

Over 95% of Inverclyde Council employees answered the call and came out on strike yesterday.

The support amongst Unison members and members of the other affected Trade Unions was much larger than expected. Inverclyde workers joined the 300,000 other public sector workers in Scotland in an unprecedented display of solidarity against the Government’s attacks on public sector pensions.

Some staff did cross picket lines, others sneaked in through side doors or managed to get access to buildings which were supposed to be closed. However the numbers of those people undermining our dispute were extremely small and probably irrelevant as all Council services ground to a halt except where emergency cover was agreed.

A number of members from both our branch and the local health branch travelled to Glasgow to take part in the march and rally organised by the STUC. This also proved to be an unprecedented success with over 10,000 marchers from across the Trade Unions taking part.

Branch Service Conditions Officer Robin Taggart says ” Despite the awful weather conditions on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, members still turned out for picket duty from as early as 7am. Overall and despite some of the rhetoric from the UK Government about the mandate for strike action, the vast majority of our members supported this day of action. This campaign is moving in only one direction and that is up the way.”