Shropshire Council responds to planned UNISON strike
The Chief Executive of Shropshire Council has today responded to decision by UNISON to take strike action on Thursday 22nd September.
A recent ballot by the trade union asked its Shropshire Council members facing a 5.4% pay cut if they were prepared to take strike action.
Unison said 45.8% of its members turned out with 66% in favour of taking industrial action whilst 34% voted against.
Speaking of the decision Kim Ryley, Chief Executive of Shropshire Council said:
“We are very unhappy about the possible disruption of public services that this industrial action poses and will do all we can to reduce the impact on local people. 90% of our staff showed no support for strike action and we believe that UNISON’s approach is misconceived and does nothing to modernise public services in a way that local people would like to see.
“We would again urge UNISON to return to the negotiating table to discuss how to reshape the Council and make it stronger and more effective in the future to meet the needs of local people.
“The changes to terms and conditions are designed to avoid making 500 staff redundant. They affect 6,500 staff, and fewer than one in three of these are members of UNISON. The result of the ballot shows that only about 500 people – a small minority of UNISON members – voted for strike action. By comparison more than 1,600 staff have already accepted the new terms and conditions.”
The day of planned industrial action next Thursday will begin with a march and rally starting at the Abbey Foregate car park marching towards Shirehall in time for a full council meeting which is being held at 10am.
