Third strike set to hit Glasgow's museums and galleries next week

May 19 2010

STAFF at some of Glasgow's busiest museums and galleries are to strike again over pay and conditions.

The workers will walk out on two days over the May Bank Holiday weekend, on May 28 and May 31, the GMB union said.

The strikes will be the third time Unison, Unite, GMB and Bectu have walked out at sites such as the Burrell Collection and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.

Earlier this month all libraries, museums and community centres run by Culture and Sport Glasgow were shut because of strikes.

The company, which is registered as a charity, said it will not know if the next strikes will close sites until the day of the action.

But already the Scottish light-welterweight boxing bout between Gary McArthur and Stuart Green, scheduled for Scotstoun Sports Campus next Friday, has been cancelled as a result of the planned action.

Martin Doran, regional organiser for GMB Scotland, said: "There will be two 24-hour stoppages and, as of Friday this week, there will be an overtime ban in place as well.

"This means no one will be working any additional hours that are requested of them.

"The silence is deafening coming from the senior management team at CSG (Culture and Sport Glasgow). The last set of talks we had was on the morning of the first day of the dispute."

After the next strikes, the unions will discuss their next move, he said.

A spokesman for Culture and Sport Glasgow said it will try to minimise disruption on the day of the strikes and advised the public to check the company's website for closures.

"Around one in seven of our staff voted for strike action and the trade unions are fully aware that the public sector is not immune from the current financial crisis," the spokesman said.

"We have consistently made it clear that our priority is to protect both services and jobs. In order to make the savings necessary to achieve this, we must change the way we work, or be forced to consider job cuts," he claimed.

The company wants to make s3.4 million in cuts this financial year and has been discussing with unions how it will implement them since September last year.

About 1600 workers are threatened with a pay freeze and the removal of overtime payments.

The first strike took place last month.