Fife’s biggest trade union, Unison, has appealed to the council to avoid further “draconian” cuts when its budget is announced on Thursday.
The council will decide how it intends to plug a £77 million black hole when it sets its budget for 2015-18.
But in a letter sent to all 78 councillors, Unison Fife branch secretary Debbie Thompson warned that the impact of further austerity measures will be devastating and called on councillors to take a stand and say ‘no’ to cuts.
She said: “Over the past five years we have seen millions of pounds taken out of our budget, with services slashed or cut completely, and with millions more to be found by 2018.
“This constant erosion of public services is already beginning to be felt by the communities we are all here to serve, with the most vulnerable in our society bearing the brunt of these draconian cuts, forced upon us in the name of austerity.
“Our communities have already seen the loss of thousands of jobs and if we continue to accept austerity, there will be thousands more to come.”
She added: “Fife’s Joint Trade Unions have been arguing for some time that there is an alternative, that we do not need to so readily accept the burden of slashing our services to the bone.
“Our organisations, both regionally and nationally, have undertaken extensive research that shows there is an alternative which protects our services and jobs.
“Fife’s joint unions will work with any independent politician or political group that refuses to accept these cuts and will pool our resources to actively campaign to gain further funding, especially given the half a billion pound underspend recently announced by the Scottish Government.”
Ms Thompson said the decisions by councillors will have a profound long-term detrimental impact across the whole of Fife.
She added: “Many of our communities already suffer from deprivation and poverty, by agreeing to implement further cuts you will only add to the pressures they already face.”