| Schools, leisure centres and council offices were closed in Dundee and across Scotland as around 150,000 public sector workers went on strike in protest at plans to change pension rules.
In Dundee all council services were hit apart from a few granted exemption by the trade unions, including social work meals services, homes for the elderly and children’s homes.
A city council spokesman said today almost everything was back to normal with the only knock-on effects being in terms of refuse collection.
People who had been due to have their domestic rubbish uplifted yesterday will have to wait until next Tuesday for it to be collected.
No commercial refuse was collected during the strike and traders had been asked not to put rubbish out yesterday, although some did so in the city centre. The spokesman said the refuse was being collected again as of this morning.
Rory Malone, Dundee branch secretary of trade union Unison, said they had been very pleased with the response to the strike call, although regretting it had been necessary to take the action.
He said the striking workers had voiced real anger at the plans to tamper with pension rules but it was directed not at the council employers but at the Government.
Mr Malone said there was to be a meeting of union representatives in Glasgow on Saturday to discuss details of the next stage in the dispute.
However, he said it looked likely at the moment that there would be further days of action, either on a regional or national basis.
“We don’t want to be taking strike action but the Scottish Executive have forced our hand,” he said.
“We care about services and we are unhappy about having to do this.”
Mr Malone urged the public to help put pressure on the Executive to settle the dispute by getting in touch with their local MSP.
The dispute centres on plans to abolish the “rule of 85”, which allows council employees to retire at 60 if their age and years of service add up to 85.
It has been stressed by Willie Gowans, trade union convener at the city council’s direct labour organisation Dundee Contract Services, that it is misleading to talk about people retiring early on full pension, which implied that they were receiving the same as if they had worked until 65.
“They only get what they are entitled to up to the age of 60,” he said. |
