UNISON Cymru/Wales has called on the leader of the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) to meet local government trade unions as a matter of urgency following the industrial action that took place 10 July.
The request follws what the union calls a false claims and negative comments that the WLGA repeated and issued during the period of industrial action.
“We are extremely disappointed with the WLGA’s reaction to the 10 July strike,” said UNSION Cymru/Wales head of local government Dominic MacAskill, who is secretary for the joint trade union side of the Joint Council for Wales.
“The attitude they took basically belittled the tens of thousands of workers in Wales who feel so strongly about their situation that they were willing to lose a day’s pay in order to make a stand.
“They then continued to pedal false claims being made by the LGA in England about the strike turnout, that 95% of the local government workforce had crossed the picket lines and were in work.
“This could not have been further from the truth. We know that more than 70,000 local government workers took strike action across Wales and that services throughout the country ground to a halt as a result.
“The point of this action was to highlight the invaluable work that local government workers do. They should be paid fairly for that work and they are worth more than the 1% offer on the table.
“As a Labour-led body, we had been confident that the WLGA would see the merits of our action and would have at least expressed a desire for the local government workforce to be a paid the living wage.
“We know that the current financial situation is challenging, but that does not change the fact that public services need to be sustainable for the long term and that this cannot be achieved without fair pay for the workforce.
“We have called on the WLGA to meet with us to discuss our concerns further in the hope that we can work together for a more positive future for public services in Wales.”
