Nursery World - Nursery nurses stand by action (1)

Council-run nurseries across Scotland face continued strikes by nursery nurses following strong support at rallies in Edinburgh and Glasgow last week. But private sector nurseries have voiced fears that they could be hit by recruitment problems if local authorities awarded their nursery staff a pay rise near the 3,000 a year being demanded by the public services union Unison.

But private sector nurseries have voiced fears that they could be hit by recruitment problems if local authorities awarded their nursery staff a pay rise near the 3,000 a year being demanded by the public services union Unison.

There was strong support at last week's rallies for further industrial action, according to Joe di Paola, Unison's Scottish organiser for local government. 'Every branch in Scotland was represented. It is a very clear measure of the support for our continuing campaign.'

Around 2,000 nursery nurses took part in the Edinburgh rally, bringing the city centre to a standstill. Mr di Paola said discussion with Unison delegates and nursery nurses had shown it was quite clear that a recommendation made by council representatives Cosla was not acceptable and they want to continue with the industrial action. He added that he would recommend this to the union's national policy makers in a report this week.

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