North Lanarkshire - new 'dodgy' ballot
North Lanarkshire Council went ahead and imposed a new 'single status' pay structure in the autumn of 2006 - despite the fact that the workforce voted overwhelmingly to reject the package put forward by management and trade unions.
Now the unions are continuing to do the employers dirty work - by conjuring up a second ballot right at the height of the holiday period!
A letter from the local Unison branch dated 6 July announces a new ballot which must be completed and returned by 3 August 2007 - i.e. in less than a month and at a time when all the schools are closed and many people are off on their summer holidays.
The timing stinks to high heaven - and suggests that the unions are simply trying to smuggle through a YES vote on a low return - while many of their members have more important things on their minds!
Otherwise why not organise a ballot when people are at their work and can also attend workplace meetings - where they can ask questions of their elected representatives?
Next thing you know, Unison will be organising ballots over the Xmas and New Year holidays - in an effort to get their way.
The new package is very similar to the first one - the biggest single difference is that it proposes a further year's protection for the earnings of the male bonus earners, but scraps off the table for everyone else.
So, yet again the interests of women members (the great majority) are relegated to a poor second place.
Now the unions are continuing to do the employers dirty work - by conjuring up a second ballot right at the height of the holiday period!
A letter from the local Unison branch dated 6 July announces a new ballot which must be completed and returned by 3 August 2007 - i.e. in less than a month and at a time when all the schools are closed and many people are off on their summer holidays.
The timing stinks to high heaven - and suggests that the unions are simply trying to smuggle through a YES vote on a low return - while many of their members have more important things on their minds!
Otherwise why not organise a ballot when people are at their work and can also attend workplace meetings - where they can ask questions of their elected representatives?
Next thing you know, Unison will be organising ballots over the Xmas and New Year holidays - in an effort to get their way.
The new package is very similar to the first one - the biggest single difference is that it proposes a further year's protection for the earnings of the male bonus earners, but scraps off the table for everyone else.
So, yet again the interests of women members (the great majority) are relegated to a poor second place.
