Glasgow Unison
A reader from Glasgow reports that she has received an unsolicited letter from Unison - showing a belated interest in equal pay.
I haven't seen the letter yet, but have asked the reader to pass a copy on - by e-mail or post.
In the meantime I've said just to ignore what it says - because it's almost certainly one of the occasional mass mail-shots the unions send out to members.
The reason the unions do this is to try confuse and worry their own members - in an effort to poach clients from Action 4 Equality Scotland.
But as I always remind people - these are the same unions that abandoned their own members when they most needed help - and encouraged them to accept poor offers of settlement from the council.
So, existing clients of Action 4 Equality Scotland can safely ignore these letters - your outstanding claim against the council is well underway - and there is no need for you to do anything at this stage - no matter what the unions say.
On a similar note, I've been reading the press reports about trade union support for a 'living wage' of £7.00 + per hour.
Better late than never I suppose - but the fact of the matter is that the unions should have got their fingers out years ago - because that's exactly what Single Status was all about back in 1999.
For the past 10 years and more - there's hardly been a traditional male council job earning less than £9.00 or even £10.00 an hour - it's the women's jobs that have all been low paid.
And the unions have been quite happy to turn a blind eye to that scandal for all these years - but get excited it seems only when the Scottish Parliament elections appear on the horizon.
I haven't seen the letter yet, but have asked the reader to pass a copy on - by e-mail or post.
In the meantime I've said just to ignore what it says - because it's almost certainly one of the occasional mass mail-shots the unions send out to members.
The reason the unions do this is to try confuse and worry their own members - in an effort to poach clients from Action 4 Equality Scotland.
But as I always remind people - these are the same unions that abandoned their own members when they most needed help - and encouraged them to accept poor offers of settlement from the council.
So, existing clients of Action 4 Equality Scotland can safely ignore these letters - your outstanding claim against the council is well underway - and there is no need for you to do anything at this stage - no matter what the unions say.
On a similar note, I've been reading the press reports about trade union support for a 'living wage' of £7.00 + per hour.
Better late than never I suppose - but the fact of the matter is that the unions should have got their fingers out years ago - because that's exactly what Single Status was all about back in 1999.
For the past 10 years and more - there's hardly been a traditional male council job earning less than £9.00 or even £10.00 an hour - it's the women's jobs that have all been low paid.
And the unions have been quite happy to turn a blind eye to that scandal for all these years - but get excited it seems only when the Scottish Parliament elections appear on the horizon.
