Do you know what's really remarkable about the ongoing equal pay situation in North Lanarkshire Council?
The fact that the trade unions have virtually nothing to say.
A big council election is just round the corner - the first one in five years - yet the trade unions are still not prepared to speak up for their members.
Why?
Because they are compromised - just as they were five years ago.
Labour-supporting unions are not inclined to criticise a Labour-run council - even when that is evidently the right thing to do - on behalf of ordinary union members.
So instead of people standing up and speaking out - the unions come over all shy and prefer to say nothing publicly - that could upset their party political apple carts.
But that's not the trade union movement I was schooled in - one where the union negotiators and representatives spoke without fear or party favour.
A sad state of affairs in my book - but I suspect all we'll hear from the trade unions all the way up to the council elections in May 2012 - is the Sound of Silence.
