Date: Tue 10 July 2007

Glasgow social care staff call for strike

The 600 Social Care staff in Glasgow who are currently in dispute over job-grading have asked their union to move to an all-out strike, UNISON said today.

At a meeting in central Glasgow they reacted angrily to legal threats from the council, and demanded the union call them out on strike as soon as legally possible.

They had planned to work-to-role from Monday this week in protest at their role profile placing by the Council's Pay and Benefits Review. However they had to postpone this action when it became clear that the council were considering a legal challenge.

Ronnie Stevenson, UNISON' s Glasgow Convenor of Social Work stewards said "The Council's eleventh hour legal challenge to force staff to choose between striking or taking no action has backfired.

"The members were very angry at the legal to-ing and fro-ing that the council seems to prefer to sitting down and negotiating a solution. They therefore asked the union to invoke the ballot result in favour of strike action, and we'll be pursuing that through the union machinery as soon as possible."

"The staff and UNISON wanted to show the council what would be lost if they were placed on this lower role profile, whilst doing at least part of their jobs to back the vulnerable clients they serve. However the council employers were insistent they would force a strike, cutting all the support for the most vulnerable."

ENDS

For Further Information Please Contact: Ronnie Stevenson (Convenor - Glasgow SW stewards) 07803 952 262(m) Mandy McDowall (Regional Officer) 07903 846 427(m) Chris Bartter (Communications Officer) 0771 558 3729(m)

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