budget – Unite CEC Branch

Council budget 2020

Standing up and speaking out against council cuts

Yesterday, Unite reps and members met outside the City Chambers before the Full Council budget meeting to demonstrate against the continued cuts to services and jobs.

Your branch officials gave a deputation to speak out against the cuts and raise our concerns with

the impact of cuts on citizens and workers
spending on debt interest payments
using digital technology to make savings and deliver services
the use of a 3-year budget when the Council only has a 1-year settlement from the Scottish Government, especially in these changing times
exclusion of citizens and workers with disabilites due to how digital technology is introduced.

Watch the webcast—our deputation is item 3d and read our brief guide to the budget below.

Sign the petition calling for proper Council funding

The Scottish Government has cut funding to Scottish councils year on year for the past decade. Edinburgh has endured £250m of budget cuts in the last five years. In 2019/20, it will face £41 million of cuts, with a predicted £106 million of cuts in the following three years. Jobs and services have been lost and continue to be cut.

The Westminster Government have cut the funding to the Scottish budget by 1.65% since 2013, but the funding the Scottish government gives to Scottish councils has fallen by 6.92% since 2013. This means that Scottish councils have taken the brunt of austerity cuts in the Scottish public sector.

We call on the Scottish Government and all opposition parties to

look urgently at the damaging impact of spending reductions
work together to increase funding to Councils.

Sign the petition

Pay rally on Wednesday 12 December at 12 noon

Join public workers from across Scotland in a rally outside the Scottish Parliament on 12 December at 12 noon to press the case for a budget for public services that

restores pay
protects our precious public services.

This is the day the Scottish Parliament will be debating the budget for 2019/20.

Trade unions want to get across their views on the budget, including money

for an appropriate public sector wage increases in 2019
to deal with homelessness and the social care crisis.

Public sector in crisis

We need more investment in all public services. Our NHS is under pressure and there is a growing crisis in care. Workers are standing up for services and standing up for themselves.

We need a fair deal for local councils. Teachers and local government workers emphatically rejected pay offers. Unions met in late November to co-ordinate plans should the Scottish Government and COSLA not provide a fair pay deal for local authority workers.

We need a fair deal for all public service workers.

The Glasgow equal pay strikes and the display of strength from Scottish teachers at their rally last month shows that public workers are losing patience.