Scotland: Nursery Nurses To Ballot For All-Out Action

AFTER EIGHT months of industrial action by Scotland’s
nursery nurses, their union, UNISON is preparing to ballot for an all-out
indefinite strike from March. CoSLA, the local authority employers, have
refused to come back to the negotiating table. Although some authorities have
made offers, these do not meet UNISON’s claim.

Alison Hughes, nursery nurse

A decade and a half of low-pay has left a fully qualified
nursery nurse with a maximum wage of £13,800, after eight years of experience.
UNISON’s claim is for a pay scale beginning at £17,340 and rising to £21,700
with a clear job description and career structure.

Two one-day strikes are planned for February and unless
CoSLA come forward with an acceptable offer there will be a vote for all-out
action.

Tracey Clayton told me: "Scottish nursery nurses will
not give up. We want recognition and pay to reflect an ever-changing job."

Another nursery nurse said: "Yes there will be more
action. The majority of nursery nurses in my area voted at a mass meeting to
take indefinite action, it was the only way to move this dispute forward.
Single days haven’t worked, neither has selective action and we have been left
with no option but an indefinite all-out strike."

The majority of Scotland’s nursery nurses are women and
they have been forgotten in the march for "education, education,
education."

Mass meetings in all 28 local council areas still in
dispute should be organised to help build for a big vote for action.

Meetings of parents and carers must also be urgently
arranged to help maintain the support we have had from them.