School staff on strike: UNISON members on the picket lines 

UNISON Inverclyde members in schools across Inverclyde have joined up to 21,000 members working in over 1,800 schools across 24 Scottish local authority areas who are reluctantly walking out yesterday, today and Thursday after Cosla failed to come up with an offer realistic enough to pause the action.

Cosla’s last-minute attempt to end the dispute on Thursday fell well short of what school staff were hoping for.

UNISON Scotland head of local government Johanna Baxter joined the pickets at Notre Dame yesterday and praised the fantastic turnout on the Picket Line.

Johanna said “Both Cosla and the Scottish government had months to get their act together. Both have failed parents, pupils and staff miserably. Not a single school employee wants to walk out, but what’s been offered is substantially short of what’s needed.

“They should give school staff a decent pay rise, fund any increase properly and commit to a timetable for implementing a minimum rate of pay of £15 per hour for all local government workers.”