A Test of Leadership
The public sector trade unions are having a laugh - aren't they?
A senior, but mysteriously anonymous, Unison source was quoted in The Herald yesterday:
"On Monday we expect the branches across the country to collectively say 'stuff it'," the source said.
The Herald's headline for the article was:
Scotland braced for winter of discontent - Union warns of industrial action if public sector pay offer not improved
Yet, these are the same unions that sat on their hands over equal pay for years - that did nothing to address the scandal of so many male jobs - being paid 50% more than their female co-workers.
We are now being asked to believe that these same unions are going to declare all-out war - over 1% or even a fraction of 1% - here or there on the public sector pay bill.
Why didn't the trade unions go to war over the fact that a male refuse worker was being paid £9.00 per hour - when a female carer or cook was being paid just £6.00 an hour?
The difference in pay to women council workers was much greater - perhaps as much as fifty times greater - than the sums of money that are being argued over now.
And just where were the union-led campaigns - including industrial action - to right that much bigger wrong on behalf of tens of thousands of low paid women members?
The trade unions' latest pay demand is for an increase of at least 3% this year - which they know full well the employers will never accept - across the board.
Because one person's pay rise is another person's job - in the current economic climate.
So, all this hullabaloo is really about a marginal shift in the employers' position - Scottish councils having made an offer to increase pay by 1% this year, 0% next year and 0.5% in 2012-2013.
If industrial action does go ahead - it will not improve the employer's offer by any significant amount - unless they find a way to conjure extra money out of thin air.
But it will cost low paid council workers money they can ill afford - while harming those who rely the most on essential council services.
The point is that Scotland's public sector is not revisiting the class struggle of days gone by - it's not as though jackbooted employers or Victorian mill owners are running our public services.
If the unions have any sense - they will get a grip of their priorities and face up to reality - which means reaching an agreement that benefits the lowest paid - whilst protecting as many jobs as possible.
But if the unions had any sense - they would have stood up for their women members over equal pay years ago - and they didn't do that either.
A senior, but mysteriously anonymous, Unison source was quoted in The Herald yesterday:
"On Monday we expect the branches across the country to collectively say 'stuff it'," the source said.
The Herald's headline for the article was:
Scotland braced for winter of discontent - Union warns of industrial action if public sector pay offer not improved
Yet, these are the same unions that sat on their hands over equal pay for years - that did nothing to address the scandal of so many male jobs - being paid 50% more than their female co-workers.
We are now being asked to believe that these same unions are going to declare all-out war - over 1% or even a fraction of 1% - here or there on the public sector pay bill.
Why didn't the trade unions go to war over the fact that a male refuse worker was being paid £9.00 per hour - when a female carer or cook was being paid just £6.00 an hour?
The difference in pay to women council workers was much greater - perhaps as much as fifty times greater - than the sums of money that are being argued over now.
And just where were the union-led campaigns - including industrial action - to right that much bigger wrong on behalf of tens of thousands of low paid women members?
The trade unions' latest pay demand is for an increase of at least 3% this year - which they know full well the employers will never accept - across the board.
Because one person's pay rise is another person's job - in the current economic climate.
So, all this hullabaloo is really about a marginal shift in the employers' position - Scottish councils having made an offer to increase pay by 1% this year, 0% next year and 0.5% in 2012-2013.
If industrial action does go ahead - it will not improve the employer's offer by any significant amount - unless they find a way to conjure extra money out of thin air.
But it will cost low paid council workers money they can ill afford - while harming those who rely the most on essential council services.
The point is that Scotland's public sector is not revisiting the class struggle of days gone by - it's not as though jackbooted employers or Victorian mill owners are running our public services.
If the unions have any sense - they will get a grip of their priorities and face up to reality - which means reaching an agreement that benefits the lowest paid - whilst protecting as many jobs as possible.
But if the unions had any sense - they would have stood up for their women members over equal pay years ago - and they didn't do that either.
