IT strike relations worsen in Swansea
Kablenet.com
Published: 13 Sep 2004 12:45 BST
Swansea Council's five-week IT strike is becoming increasingly bitter, with recriminations mounting as local authority chiefs fear an escalation of the industrial action.
On Friday the council's deputy leader accused Unison, the trade union representing the 100 striking IT workers, of attempting to "hijack public services" in the dispute over Swansea's e-government programme.
"We have seen Unison's hidden agenda in this dispute," said councillor Gerald Clement. "It is using Swansea, its council and its customers as a pawn in its national fight to oppose modern public services across the country."
He said that Unison "is not interested in negotiating" and that it should "stop playing games with people's lives".
Clement's comments come after Unison had earlier organised a rally in support of the council's IT workers. The rally was addressed by Unison general secretary Dave Prentis, who gave the 500 assembled workers the union's full backing.
Unison regional representative Jeff Baker dismissed Clement's criticisms. He warned that the comments are more likely to stir up support amongst other council workers.
"Not even The Sun says this sort of thing anymore," he said. "I thought this sort of thing went out in the 1970s. They've stooped to the lowest depths on this."
"They are supposed to be in the middle of a negotiating process at the moment. This is a completely unhelpful and counterproductive way to attack us and it's completely without substance."
"They're really scraping the barrel with this. We've got absolutely no hidden agenda. You can't have 100 IT workers on strike for four weeks and have a hidden agenda."
"Our workers are taking a stand, the point is that they actually want to continue working with the council – how can there be anything underhand about that?"
Baker said that the IT staff have "no intention" of walking away from the talks. He said the main aim is to "remain part of the council service.".
A total of 5,000 staff across the Council are to be balloted on whether to join the strike over the next week.
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