Senior Scottish council leaders are to hold emergency talks today to discuss the looming bin strike.
With millions of Scots facing misery from August 14, the heads of the political groups on the council body Cosla are due to work on their next move.
It comes as ministers and councils try to thrash out a joint way of finding more money.
Unite, Unison and the GMB confirmed on Wednesday that their cleansing and recycling staff will start an eight-day walk-out unless they get an improved pay offer this year.
The unions want a raise of up to 5.5 per cent for the lowest paid staff, but Cosla has said 3.2 per cent is its limit.
Waste collection workers will go on strike across Scotland within weeks, unions have confirmed (Pictured: Bin workers begin to clean up piles of rubbish on Edinburgh’s Princes Street after a 12 day bin strike ends in 2022)
Rubbish is expected to pile high in Scotland’s streets as bin men strike over pay (Pictured: Overflowing bins on the streets of Edinburgh during strikes in 2022)
Talks between union leaders, councils and the Scottish Government failed to avert strike action (Pictured: Overflowing bin on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile during strike action in 2022)
Union leaders expect to hear a further pay offer next week.
Cammy Day, the labour leader of City of Edinburgh Council, yesterday called on Scottish First Minister John Swinney to spare the capital ‘a tough time’ in one of its busiest months of the year.
He urged Mr Swinney to ‘find that little more to avert strike action’.
He told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘It is now time for John Swinney or his Cabinet secretary to intervene with a solution. That is what we are waiting for.’
Having already warned strikes could lead to a ‘stinking Scottish summer’, the unions Unison, Unite and the GMB all announced waste and recycling staff will walk out over pay from 5am on Wednesday August 14 to 4.59am on Thursday August 22, with 26 of Scotland’s 32 councils affected.
The action comes after the unions rejected the 3.2 per cent pay rise offered, which local government body Cosla insisted was at the limit of affordability for councils.
A similar strike in 2022 was only resolved when the Scottish Government stepped in and provided additional funding for council workers’ pay.
Cammy Day, the labour leader of City of Edinburgh Council, has called on Scottish First Minister John Swinney to spare the capital ‘a tough time’ in one of its busiest months of the year
Edinburgh was branded an ‘international embarrassment’ during a 12-day bin strike two years ago, when visitors were repulsed by a cloying stench across the Capital
Bins and litter along Princes Street in Edinburgh city centre in 2022
Cllr Day added: ‘Twenty-six councils will have strike action in two weeks’ time, and the only resolution to that will be if Cosla and the Scottish Government can work with the trade unions to find a solution.
‘What we’re asking is for Cosla and the Scottish Government to get round that table and find that little more to avert strike action across the 26 councils all over Scotland.’
The Labour councillor insisted local authorities are not able to stump up more cash themselves, saying the 3.2 per cent offer was already a stretch for many of them and ‘any more would mean reductions and cuts in services from local government’.
Talks previously took place on Tuesday involving Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison, Cosla leaders and the unions.
While no new deal was agreed Ms Robison said afterwards that her officials will work with local government to ‘understand what an improved negotiating envelope may look like’.
Binmen in Glasgow returning to work in August 2022 following a bin strike
Refuse workers begin a major clear up in Edinburgh after a first wave of strikes ended on August 30, 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland
The workers had been on strike since August 18, 2022 resulting in piles of rubbish across the city
Bin strikes in Edinburgh in August 2022
Rubbish piled up on the streets of Glasgow city centre in the summer of 2022 as the bin strike carried on across Scotland
Mr Day said his understanding is the unions ‘expect no less than the national settlement, which was around 4 per cent’.
He added: ‘I think we are nearly there, but local governments across Scotland are stretched to their maximum and we need the Government, as they have done the last few years, to support local government and our trade unions and Cosla to find that little bit more and avert strike action.’
Speaking to journalists later on Thursday, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar urged the Government to get unions and local authorities back to the table to ensure the strikes do not become an ‘annual event’ during the festivals.
Scottish Liberal Democrat communities spokesperson Willie Rennie also demanded action from ministers, saying: ‘Two years ago, stinking columns of rubbish were allowed to pile up in the streets, and now this SNP Government has allowed it to happen again.
‘Ministers need to skip the posturing and bring something meaningful to the table.’
But the Lib Dem MSP added: ‘The unions need to be reasonable too, they are not the only public sector workers who need a pay rise.’
Rubbish piled up in Glasgow, August 2022
Members of the public walk past a large pile of rubbish on August 29, 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland
