Thousands of Scottish nursery nurses have voted to take indefinite strike action in a major escalation of their long-running pay dispute with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA), it was announced today.
The vote for action, 81%, was larger than expected, with 68% of Unison members taking part in the ballot. Angela Lynes, the leader of Unison's negotiating team, which wanted national talks, said the size of the majority was highly significant.
"The vote is one of the best results we've had in a strike ballot for a very long time," she said. "It reflects the fact that our people had been taking separate days of action since May and the employers wouldn't come round the table. This was the only way to get their attention."
The action is expected to begin on or around March 1 but channels of communication with employers were being kept open, said Ms Lynes.
She said 3,000 of Unison's 5,000 nursery nurses were currently earning between £10,000 and £13,800, and the union wanted to see pay grades for its lowest paid members increased from £10,000 to £13,800.
Unison said its case for a national pay rise was needed because a local bargaining deal agreed two years ago had still not been implemented.
"The parents we speak to tell us that they support us and appreciate why we have to take this step," added Ms Lynes.
"Children learn more in their first five years of life than at any time afterwards and they want nurses to feel motivated and valued. Hopefully this action will only be an inconvenience to them in the short term."
But Lynne Dixon, CoSLA's employers secretary, said she was "extremely disappointed" with the result.
"It's a decision that we don't understand when all of the councils in Scotland are ready to sit down with Unison and put proposals on the table for grading nursery nurses," she added.
CoSLA wanted negotiations to take place at local level and the union had already turned down a minimum pay rise of 6.7%, backdated to April 1 2003, it said.
Ms Dixon said Unison had already accepted the principle of local bargaining and that CoSLA had already offered to implement it within a national framework.
"There is a solution to this dispute, but it has to be a local one," she said.
"We have said all along that we are open to discuss how we take this matter forward with Unison officials and we will continue to do that. There is no question of doors being closed.
"Parents are obviously extremely concerned with the disruption being caused to them, their children and to the nursery nurses themselves. We are getting calls and letters about it."
