As UNISON’s Scottish local government members move towards an industrial action ballot, the branch has emailed all our members in the council, for whom we have an email address, asking them to email the leader of the council, Councillor Kille to ask Aberdeenshire Council to support a decent pay rise for council workers.
Thanks to all those who have already emailed.
Inez Kirk, branch secretary said: “Local Government UNISON members voted overwhelmingly in a consultative ballot to reject the CoSLA pay offer.
“To date the employer has made no effort to improve the offer, despite our colleagues in Health being offered almost twice as much, especially for their lowest paid members and those on the front-line.
“Well those of us in councils were on the front-line too and whilst we are pleased for our Health colleagues, we think that we deserve a better pay rise too. ”
The branch has provided a framework email below and all members need to do is complete it in respect of your own situation, cut and paste it into an email to Councillor Kille and send it to cllr.a.kille@aberdeenshire.
Please do take a few minutes to send off this email. You can copy in the Grampian Resource Centre on grampianresourcecentre@unison.
Email to Leader of Council cllr.a.kille@aberdeenshire.
Dear Councillor
Local Government workers deserve a decent pay rise
I am a UNISON member and I work for Aberdeenshire Council as a ____________________________ (please insert your job or the one you did at the height of the pandemic)
I have worked throughout the pandemic providing services to the people of Aberdeenshire. (say more here about your job if you want)
The pay offer you have made to workers like me is derisory. It is much less than the pay rise accepted by our colleagues in Health. They deserve that rise and more, but so do we. We provide just as important services – services that kept our communities going throughout the pandemic.
But for me ______________________________
(Please explain here why your job has been critical; for example, older people wouldn’t have been cared for; our children would not have been able to return to school; our key workers wouldn’t have been able to go to work; our rubbish wouldn’t have been collected; our election could not have taken place etc etc)
I am calling on the council to support a decent pay rise for council workers. Aberdeenshire is one of the most expensive places to live in Scotland. Please show how much you have valued us by giving us a decent pay increase that meets our pay claim. Like we have said, clapping doesn’t pay the bills. If you value us, reward us so we can pay our bills and raise our families without having to worry.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Name