Council workers in Dundee have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action if the City Council presses ahead with plans to change carers’ hours.
Plans to overhaul working conditions for home carers were put before the council last year but were deferred following vehement opposition from unions.
Now revised plans have been brought forward again this year but have yet again failed to find favour with trade unions.
The plans would see a range of new shifts, including split shifts, introduced.
Home care workers who do not want to do split shifts face losing up to £4,500 a year.
Susan Marnie from the GMB union said 81% of members had taken part in a consultative ballot on whether to take industrial action if the council tried to force through the changes to the shifts.
She said 90% of members were in favour of industrial action.
Two other trade union, Unite and Unison, also balloted members, with 88% and 80% saying they would be in favour of taking industrial action.
The results of the ballots were announced at a rally in Albert Square on Saturday protesting against the cuts proposed by Dundee City Council’s SNP administration.
Protesters marched from Unite’s headquarters on Blackness Road to Albert Square for the demonstration.
Stuart Fairweather from the Unite union said although the administration has proposed around £10 million worth of cuts, planned changes to the terms and conditions of all council workers will mean the actual value of the cuts will be nearly double that sum.
Jim McFarlane from Unison told the crowd: “Let’s send a message to the city council that they know nothing about the history and tradition of working class women in this city.
“They can’t just roll over them.”
He added: “These 200 workers are not on their own. We have had enough of cuts and are fighting back.”
The Rev Erik Cramb from Dundee Pensioners’ Forum said he believed proposed cuts to education in Dundee send the wrong message.
He said: “A long time ago, as a baby, I had polio.
“As the son of a Glasgow tenement, what chance did I have? But, thanks to the vision of people before me to create the health and education services, I got to go to university.
“I didn’t pay tuition fees and I didn’t have to take loans. Education was an investment in me and I worked and paid taxes all my days.
“Do we believe in the future of Dundee? Do we believe in the future of our children.
“These cuts are not being done in the interests of our children.”
