Politics and Equal Pay
Image of the week must surely be that of Alex Salmond – being greeted warmly and to loud applause by delegates to the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) – Scotland’s annual gathering of the trade union movement.
In times gone by, the attendance of the SNP leader at the STUC has been hugely controversial – because the brothers are virtually all Labour supporters; extremely tribal, and often sectarian, in their political outlook.
But you can’t argue with people power – Alex Salmond was there as Scotland’s First Minister – so the trade unions had no choice other than to be friendly and welcoming to someone they regard privately as a deadly political foe.
Now this is odd – because ordinary union members are just the same as everyone else – they support political parties of all hues and colours – the SNP, Lib Dems, Conservatives, Greens, Socialist Party/Solidarity and even the occasional Independent.
Yet union bosses can’t see past the Labour Party – and they use vast sums of their members’ money cozying up to Labour – over £100 million in the past 20 years.
Money that could have been spent on standing up for the members’ interests – instead of trying to buy muscle and influence inside just one political party.
What has this got to do with equal pay?
Quite a lot actually – because one of the reasons that the unions gave the employers such an easy time after signing the 1999 Single Status Agreement – is that all the big councils were Labour-run councils: Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Fife.
And the Labour supporting trade unions lacked the political will they needed to take a firm stand with and fall out with, if necessary, their political allies – who were pulling the strings inside Scottish local government.
So, in reality, lip service was paid to equal pay and single status – and the trade unions decided to choose the easy option and not to rock any boats - while council budgets doubled over ten years.
Proportional representation (PR) changed all that – there are still lots of issues and problems to overcome and none of the political parties have covered themselves in glory on the subject of equal pay.
But PR ended Labour’s stranglehold on power – and the reduced the ability of politicians from just one party to lord it over us – in Scotland at least, since Westminster and other UK elections have still to catch up.
The Scottish Parliament and Scotland’s councils now reflect – much more accurately than they used to – the people they are elected to represent.
Whatever party people support - if you support one at all - that can only be a good thing for our democracy and the future of politics in Scotland.
The point is that things can change – things do change – and while equal pay is a hard slog in many areas – it’s something that’s still worth fighting for.
10 years ago it would have been unthinkable for Alex Salmond to be cheered to the rafters at the STUC. 10 years on it’s time for the unions to transcend party politics - and put the interests of their members first.
In times gone by, the attendance of the SNP leader at the STUC has been hugely controversial – because the brothers are virtually all Labour supporters; extremely tribal, and often sectarian, in their political outlook.
But you can’t argue with people power – Alex Salmond was there as Scotland’s First Minister – so the trade unions had no choice other than to be friendly and welcoming to someone they regard privately as a deadly political foe.
Now this is odd – because ordinary union members are just the same as everyone else – they support political parties of all hues and colours – the SNP, Lib Dems, Conservatives, Greens, Socialist Party/Solidarity and even the occasional Independent.
Yet union bosses can’t see past the Labour Party – and they use vast sums of their members’ money cozying up to Labour – over £100 million in the past 20 years.
Money that could have been spent on standing up for the members’ interests – instead of trying to buy muscle and influence inside just one political party.
What has this got to do with equal pay?
Quite a lot actually – because one of the reasons that the unions gave the employers such an easy time after signing the 1999 Single Status Agreement – is that all the big councils were Labour-run councils: Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire and Fife.
And the Labour supporting trade unions lacked the political will they needed to take a firm stand with and fall out with, if necessary, their political allies – who were pulling the strings inside Scottish local government.
So, in reality, lip service was paid to equal pay and single status – and the trade unions decided to choose the easy option and not to rock any boats - while council budgets doubled over ten years.
Proportional representation (PR) changed all that – there are still lots of issues and problems to overcome and none of the political parties have covered themselves in glory on the subject of equal pay.
But PR ended Labour’s stranglehold on power – and the reduced the ability of politicians from just one party to lord it over us – in Scotland at least, since Westminster and other UK elections have still to catch up.
The Scottish Parliament and Scotland’s councils now reflect – much more accurately than they used to – the people they are elected to represent.
Whatever party people support - if you support one at all - that can only be a good thing for our democracy and the future of politics in Scotland.
The point is that things can change – things do change – and while equal pay is a hard slog in many areas – it’s something that’s still worth fighting for.
10 years ago it would have been unthinkable for Alex Salmond to be cheered to the rafters at the STUC. 10 years on it’s time for the unions to transcend party politics - and put the interests of their members first.
