Unions demand reversal of Scotland’s culture cuts which 'threaten 8,500 jobs' - The Scotsman

Unions demand reversal of Scotland’s culture cuts which ‘threaten 8,500 jobs’ – The Scotsman

Union leaders have issued an eleventh-hour demand that the Scottish Government reverse a “perverse” 10 per cent funding cut for Creative Scotland amid warnings that it will put 8500 arts workers at risk.

They have suggested that ministers are using culture jobs as “cannon fodder” to make savings in their budget plans, describing the planned cut as a “wholly lamentable political choice.”

Eight unions representing actors, musicians, visual artists, writers, crew and technicians have joined forces to plead for a rethink over a £7 million cut in the national arts agency’s grant for the next financial year.

The government has been warned that targeting Creative Scotland will affect some of the country’s most “precarious” workers, due to their already low pay and insecure employment, with many having to take on two jobs to make ends meet.

The Scottish Trades Union Congress has written to Deputy First Minister and acting Finance Secretary John Swinney and Culture Secretary Angus Robertson on behalf of the Musicians’ Union, the Scottish Artists Union, BECTU, Equity, the Writers’ Guild, Scottish Society of Playwrights and the Society of Authors, warning that cutting arts funding is “the wrong choice at the wrong time.”

Creative Scotland faces having to use £7m from its £17m national lottery reserves to preserve “standstill” funding agreements for 120 companies, venues and organisations over the next 12 months, with huge uncertainty over its future funding.