On Thursday 24th February, Unison members at Nottinghamshire County Council were out on strike against £150 million budget cuts. The strike was timed to coincide with the council meeting where the budget was to be set. The union also organised a march across Trent Bridge and a rally in front of County Hall.

Nottinghamshire is the first council in the UK to experience strike action in response to the cuts, but with jobs and services being slashed across the country many more unions are likely to join them. Workers at Barnet council have already voted to strike against privatisation plans dubbed, “easyCouncil,” while Unison members at Birmingham reportedly voted unanimously for a strike ballot at meetings held in early-February.

On the newswire: Notts County Council Strike: 2 Rally & Speeches | Notts County Council Strike: 1 The March | Notts County Council strike: rally | Notts County Council strike: March | Notts County Council workers on strike | Notts County Council workers to strike

Previous features: Notts County Council announce £72m cuts | Protests against county council cuts

Pickets

There were pickets at many of the council’s bases, located across the county, including at County Hall, the authority’s main headquarters. Picketers at been in place at County Hall since before the building was opened at 5.30am and by 8am were covering all the entrances to the building.

Few people were deterred by the pickets, but it was noted by several people that it was very quiet for a Thursday. Whether this is because of the strike or if people have taken leave or arranged to work at home so as to avoid the strike isn’t clear.

One person who did refuse to go in was a Labour councillor who explained he had never crossed a picket line in his life and wasn’t about to start now.

Most people going into work didn’t make much effort to engage with picketers, usually going out of their way to avoid eye contact. One council worker, however, tried to explain that while he was a Unison member, he was also a LibDem (evidently he wasn’t embarrassed by this) and supported what the government was trying to do to fix the “mess” created by Labour.

Strikers on the vehicle exit apparently encountered a greater number of people and were able to stop at least on postal delivery coming in.

Reports from elsewhere in the County tell a varying picture, with only 1 picket at the Employee Services Centre in Rushcliffe Business Park and as many as sixty at Lawn View House in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

The council’s own “disruption” page listed 2 customer service points, 6 day services and 11 libraries as being closed, at least for some of the day.

From 11am, strikers began congregating on Victoria Embankment for a march to County Hall and a rally. Once that was completed a presence was maintained on the main vehicle entrance in the hope of ensuring any deliveries did not cross the picket line.

It is too early to confidently evaluate the impact of the strike action. While it may not have been as big as could be hoped for it is worth noting that after months of ignoring the union, the council organised a meeting to discuss their concerns as soon as the result of the ballot was announced.

The ballot was for open-ended action and meetings are planned over the next couple of weeks to see where the dispute can move forward from here.

March

Unison had originally wanted to march from Bridge Field in West Bridgford, but Tory-run Rushcliffe Borough Council refused permission for the union to use the land, claiming that do otherwise might be seen as “supporting a political initiative”. Unison condemned the decision, but relocated the start point to Victoria Embankment.

Unison had organised coaches from around the county and union members were joined by campaigners from Notts SOS, members of the CWU and FBU, the Labour Party (keen to get a dig at the Tory county council) and others. Based on discussions with people there and union officials there were probably around 650 people in attendance. Not a awful turnout, but certainly disappointing.

The march was to make its way across Trent Bridge to County Hall, but protesters were only allowed to use one lane of the bridge, in an area marked off by cones, with three van-loads of police to make sure people didn’t accidentally wander into oncoming traffic. The effect of this was to trap people between the fence overlooking the river and a line of coppers as if they were in the world’s thinnest kettle.

From Trent Bridge, demonstrators followed Loughborough Road, again only allowed on one lane of the road and then into County Hall via the car entrance for a rally.

Rally

This is the fourth such lobby of County Hall since the Tories took control of the council, but the first to be preceded by a march.

There were a range of speakers, but there was a clear orientation towards trade unionists. Among them Unison’s head of local government Heather Wakefield, Jean Thorpe from Nottingham City Unison and somebody from the FBU. Other speakers included the head of the Labour Group on the council Alan Rhodes and at least one service user.

Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately), the PA wasn’t very good so I couldn’t actually hear much of what was being said. At one point, the speakers system packed up completely (blamed, jokingly on council leader Kay Cutts) and speakers had to make do with a megaphone.

The crowd was initially quote noisy and chanted enthusiastically. Unfortunately, as inevitably happens, people drifted off. The event was just about to be drawn to a conclusion when it was discovered that the BBC would be going out live at 1.30pm, so the chanting was started up again and kept up fairly impressively throughout the broadcast.

It was notable that while the previous such rally in October had filled the area in front of County Hall, this one didn’t do so. Whether this was because it is currently half term or for some other reason isn’t clear.

While not as large as might have been hoped, the turnout was still impressive and the rally was a central part of the action on the day. With further strike action likely this probably won’t be the last time workers rally outside County Hall.