Pupils at Ayton, Cockburnspath and Reston returned to school on Tuesday after the summer holidays only to have an extra day's holiday on Wednesday as their schools were closed. Nursery classes at Chirnside and Coldstream were closed because of the lack of support staff and the Volunteer Hall in Duns was closed. Four of the region's high schools were also closed by the industrial action but Berwickshire High School and Eyemouth High School remained open.
The one-day action by around 2000 local members of UNISON, GMB and Unite was in support of pay claims after the majority of members of each union rejected Scottish Borders Council's final offer of a 2.5 per cent rise for each of the next three years. SBC staff were among 200,000 council staff across Scotland taking 24 hour strike action in pursuit of a pay rise that would be more in line with inflation which is currently running at 4.3 per cent and rising.
The extent of the strike was only just beginning to be felt at the time of going to press but householders were advised to put out their rubbish for collection as usual if it was due to be collected, and if it was not picked up then they were to leave the bins out and it would be collected as soon as possible.