FOUR trade unions are to join together in protest against proposed cuts to services.

Representatives from unions Unison, Unite, GMB and EIS will gather on Thursday to lobby Glasgow City Council's budget meeting.

The groups, which represent around 20,000 of the local authority's staff, are calling for politicians to reject the planned cuts of £29 million from the council's budget.

Union organisers say the cash-saving plans are just the latest in £200million worth of savings made by Glasgow City Council in the last five years, along with around 4,000 job losses.

They have suggested the local authority uses it's reserves and borrowing powers to cover the £29m, instead of making cuts to services.

Some of the money-saving proposals include raising the price of school meals from £1.50 to £1.90 by August 2016 and reducing the frequency of window cleaning at schools to once a year, according to union officials.

Union bosses also claim the local authority are proposing to save £2m by cutting education services for children in hospital and those with psychological or additional support needs.

As reported in the Evening Times, the local authority are also proposing to save cash from mental health services' budgets including more than £800,000 in funding for the Glasgow Association for Mental Health (GAMH)

In an open letter to all 79 city councillors, the four organisations called for elected members to reject the proposals.

It read: "You are once again faced with a decision on whether to implement more of the ConDem austerity programme in Glasgow.

"The Director of Finance is asking all political groups to identify how they will cut £29m from the council's budget in 2015/16, with bigger gaps predicted for 2016/17 and 2017/18.

"Previous decisions have seen over £200m cut from council spending in the last five years including the loss of over 4,000 jobs.

"You will also be aware that the trade unions have been arguing for a number years that council politicians have a choice - make the ConDem cuts or do not.

"We have urged you in the past to use all available financial mechanisms to hold off any further cuts whilst leading a fight to win more money for the city."

UNISON Branch secretary Brian Smith said: "The trade unions will support any council politician or political group who now says "No More Cuts".

"We suggest using some of the council's reserves and borrowing powers to meet the £29m "gap" for 2015/16.

"This would allow the time and space to build a mass campaign of elected members, trade unions, user groups and local communities with the objective of winning more money from national government especially in light of the £400M Scottish Government underspend.

"Glasgow's politicians have a choice - make the cuts or do not".

A council spokesman said: " XXX"