Union warning over industrial action as Glasgow museum protests continue

A trade union has warned industrial action by staff in Glasgow’s museums is “almost inevitable” as protests against job cuts continue.

UNISON members gathered outside the city chambers ahead of a meeting of the council’s administration committee to call for planned savings to be reversed.

It is the third time the union has held protests over the cuts in recent weeks, following demonstrations at the Burrell Collection and the Gallery of Modern Art, where Banksy’s exhibition is currently on display.

Members will meet outside the People’s Palace on Saturday (August 19) — just days after the council agreed a £36m plan to restore the venue, and began a search for funding.

Brian Smith, UNISON branch secretary, said: “To use a sporting metaphor, it’s like selling your best players at the exact same time as trying to improve the stadium to increase attendances.

“It undermines the real reason why people want to come in the first place.”

UNISON has claimed it is opposing £1.5m of cuts which would impact 30% of jobs in the city’s museums and collections section, but Cllr Annette Christie, SNP, the chair of Glasgow Life, has said the figure is “more in line with about 6% of the posts”.

Curators, conservators, technicians, learning assistants and collections staff are expected to be affected.

A spokesman for Glasgow Life, the arms-length body which runs culture and leisure venues on behalf of the council, said museums and collections “receive careful and considered care, and this is going to continue”.

More than half of the posts affected are currently vacant, he added.

Speaking at the protest on Thursday, union rep Mr Smith said: “Members are angry but they are also determined to try and change the council’s position.

“We’ve got a collective dispute in and we’re also now consulting with members about taking industrial action. That’s almost inevitable now.”

He added: “These people are the folk who develop, look after, set up the displays within the museums. Everything you see, enjoy and interact with in the museums is what they do.

“We don’t think it makes sense to be cutting the museum staff at the minute when they are trying to develop the museums and get people to go back.

“We support the plans to try to get capital investment into the People’s Palace, it needs it. But to then cut the people who are responsible for displaying the stuff, you are improving the building but then cutting the staff.”

UNISON is campaigning for more national funding to be provided to Glasgow’s museums. “We’ve got these national assets, national museums and sports facilities, that are not funded by the Scottish Government,” Mr Smith said.

“People in the suburban areas, not in the council tax base, are not making any contribution, but these are national assets. These aren’t Glasgow museums in that sense, and we want the Scottish Government to take responsibility for that.”

An SNP spokesperson said: “We wholeheartedly agree that our museums need more investment and the city administration has raised the issue of funding and parity with the Edinburgh-based national museums with the Scottish Government on several occasions.

“We have and will always make the case for more resources for Glasgow, its communities and for the services the council family delivers.”

The Glasgow Life spokesman said the savings “add up to around 9% of the annual service fee the charity receives from Glasgow City Council and ensure we will not have to close any venues”.

“More than half of the Glasgow Life museums posts affected by these savings measures are currently vacant,” he added. “We are currently working closely with staff and unions to work through what this will mean for individual members of staff.

“Wherever possible, we have identified ways of making savings by reducing, rather than losing, Glasgow Life services, programmes and events, retaining the potential to rebuild them in the future.”

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