Tag Archives: strike action

SNP must repair relations with councils and unions as more than 210,000 days lost

Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie has today said that the Education Secretary must rebuild relations with trade unions and local authorities as he revealed that more than 210,000 staff days were lost to strikes in just 18 months.

Freedom of information requests submitted by Scottish Liberal Democrats have revealed:

  • In 2022/23, at least 170,049 school and council staff days were lost due to strikes, while a further 46,197 were lost between April and October 2023;
  • Children missing out on up to a dozen days of education;
  • Among the local authorities which responded, Glasgow lost the most days of staff time with 29,295

Posted in News, Press releases and Scotland | Also tagged and | Leave a comment

An idea to put a stop to those public sector strikes

Don't Work and Fight BackSchools, libraries, the Welsh Assembly and other government offices were shut or operating a reduced service day because of a strike by several public sector unions in protest at their falling wages, increasing pensions contributions and longer working lives.

David Cameron has a totally wizard wheeze to stop all this from happening. He wants to shift the goalposts so that a certain threshold have to turn out to vote in favour of strike action. Oh, Dave, really. If you start questioning the legitimacy of elections with low turnout, …

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 15 Comments

Opinion: Support teachers’ right to strike, but not the NUT strikes in June

Teacher - License Some rights reserved by ben110It’s no secret to readers of Liberal Democrat Voice that when I write an article, education professionals tend to get it in the neck. At least I’m consistent.

So why should the June strike bother me? Jerry Glazier highlights the issue of teachers’ workload that it is now up to 55 to 60 hours a week on average. This angered me because while youth unemployment stands at just under 1 million a qualified teacher in primary or secondary will start on £21,000 and on average …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 114 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tim
    So glad you are a councillor again. Still miss you here....
  • Chris Webb
    Excellent piece. I really like the "I'm a Liberal because..." idea, and will prod my local association along just those lines....
  • Mick Taylor
    Hi Chris. A brave man to take on a seat on Lambeth. I suspect that the great increase in casework is at least partly caused by the huge cutbacks in Local Govern...
  • William Wallace
    Roz: This is exactly what we need to get us all thinking. I would add that we need to rethink our approach to political economy. Liberal democracy is easiest t...
  • expats
    @ Catherine Hodgkinson 24th Aug '26 - 2:16pm Trump keeps stating, without ever producing proof, that his Tariffs are working.. However, .Pulitzer Priz...