The Scotsman Bulletin Monday August 12 2024 #BinStrike
Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young hears the latest on the bin strikes from political correspondent Rachel Amery
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young and I'm
00:12dedicated to the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our political correspondent Rachel Emery
00:16to talk about some of the main stories. Hi Rachel. Good morning. Let's have a look at
00:21the front page first off. And we lead today on the latest concerns around university finances.
00:31This is an exclusive our education correspondent Callum Ross has got and it concerns our memo
00:38which has been sent out to Edinburgh University staff suggesting that there are going to have
00:44to be cost cuts in all areas because running costs have soared to £100m a month. Full
00:54story running at Scotsman.com and in today's paper we picture there the spectacular closing
01:01ceremony of the Paris Olympics. One story we don't have on the front page but will undoubtedly
01:09be a big story today is the latest on the bin strikes and that's what I want to speak
01:15to Rachel about. Rachel, so this strike action rather has been planned for some time. There
01:22have been warnings that there's going to be rubbish piling up in the streets during the
01:27Edinburgh Festival. I'll remember the scene from 2022 when there was similar industrial
01:33action. Hope now that there may be a breakthrough and the strikes could actually be called off
01:39by the end of the day. Yes, so at the moment strikes are due to go ahead from this Wednesday
01:46for more than a week in 26 out of Scotland's 32 local authorities. So the majority of the
01:51country really when we're talking about this but of course a lot of the headlines are about
01:56the Edinburgh Fringe because of the hundreds of thousands of tourists that are descending
02:00on the capital right now. Now the pay offer that's on the table just now is 3.2% and that
02:05has been rejected by the trade unions which is why these bin strikes are going on. However
02:11over the past few days the finance secretary Shona Robison has announced that the government
02:14has found some extra cash to put for a new offer on the table. Now this new offer would
02:19be increasing the offer to 3.6% and for the lowest paid workers it would be increasing
02:25it to 5.63%. So overall it would be an increase of 4.27% so quite a bit more than the 3.2%
02:33that was already on offer. So COSLA, the umbrella body for Scotland's councils and
02:38the trade unions are due to meet today to discuss this new option on the table and there's
02:42a lot of hope that the trade unions will accept this offer and that the bin strike will be
02:48called off. So we'll need to wait and see what happens today. I'm sure we'll have all
02:52the details on the Scotsman's website as it happens throughout the day as well as to whether
02:55these strikes do get called off or not.
02:59It is becoming a familiar pattern though isn't it and I guess there will be concern around
03:07it especially at a time when the government says it has absolutely no more money. At the
03:11last minute it finds more money to avert a strike. We've got strikes threatened in other
03:16areas on ScotRail which is publicly owned of course in schools as well. Do you think
03:29making this sort of offer at the last minute is just storing up problems potentially looking
03:37at the other disputes that are coming?
03:38Yeah it's quite an interesting way to look at it because this is not the first time where
03:42at the very very last moment extra cash has been found to try and avert a strike action.
03:47But of course the whole way through we were hearing from the government and ministers
03:51that there literally is no more money. First Minister John Swinney was very very clear
03:56on that saying that look if you want more money it's got to come from somewhere else
04:00in the public purse because all the funds have already been allocated. There's literally
04:04nothing left. However at the very very last minute this new offer has been found. I'm
04:08not sure of the exact figures how much it's worth but I can imagine it's in the tens of
04:12millions this offer. So for them to have found this at the last minute perhaps suggests that
04:17there was extra cash somewhere or they've had to maybe cut something somewhere else
04:22to make room for this. So it means that the next time there's a public sector pay dispute
04:27they can say well let's hold out to the very last minute because last time they stumped
04:32up the cash. So there's a risk that next time this happens that it will go to the wire so
04:36that the government finds more cash at the last minute because as you were saying it's
04:40not the first time that this has happened here.
04:43No and you would guess it certainly won't be the last either. We await details today
04:52and hopefully good news which will mean that the strike is called off. Thank you very much
04:57for that Rachel. Please go now to scottsman.com throughout the day for all the very latest
05:02news and analysis. If you can do subscribe then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely
05:07everything that we do. And if you're out and about today please do pick up a copy of the
05:14paper from me and from Rachel. It's bye for now.
05:17Goodbye.
05:21Bye.