Don't Hold Your Breath

A kind reader drew my attention to the following article which appeared in the Daily Record yesterday - a somewhat desperate appeal by Scottish Labour leader  - Johann Lamont - for the votes of trade union members.

The laugh is that I've yet to hear Johann Lamont - or any other Labour MSP for that matter - say anything remotely supportive about the fight for equal pay in recent times - or the role played by the big Labour run councils which has been a disgrace in my opinion.

For years Scotland's Labour-run councils - Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire - were guilty of widespread pay discrimination against the lowest paid council workers - the great majority of whom are women of course.

Yet for years the trade unions in Scotland turned a blind eye to what was going on - they kept their low paid women members completely in dark - because union leaders didn't want to face up to what was going on.

Since that would have meant the Labour-supporting unions calling a spade a spade - and standing up to the political leadership of these large Labour-run councils. 

But they chose not to - the trade unions just chose to look the other way - at a time when council budgets in Scotland doubled in size over the ten years from 1997 to 2007.

So forgive me if I tale these claims about Scottish Labour's crusade against injustice and inequality - with a giant pinch of salt.

Because all the evidence points in the opposite direction - of cosy relations between Labour run councils and tame trade unions - which have worked against the interests of ordinary union members on issues such as equal pay.

I resigned from the Scottish Labour party in 1999 because of the corrupting nature of this relationship - which continues to bedevil the work of the trade unions - whose leaders still put party political interests above those of their own members - especially when crucial issues come to the fore.

I am not a member of any political party these days - nor do I support any particular party when it comes to local or national elections - I make up my mind on the issues of the day and by weighing up all of the candidates.

To my mind that is exactly how the trade unions in Scotland should behave - because their historical love affair with the Labour party is not in the best interests - of ordinary union members.

Which leads me to conclude that Johann Lamont is not just wrong - but that she is deliberately ignoring Labour's track record - all the evidence of her own eyes and ears - for these past ten years and more.

So if you're waiting on the Scottish Labour crusade arriving anytime soon - my advice is both simple and clear - don't hold your breath. 


Johann Lamont: Trade union members should vote Labour, not SNP

Scots Labour leader Johann Lamont yesterday launched a bid to win back trade union memmbers who backed the SNP at the last election.

She vowed her party would listen to the unions and accused the SNP of “deceit”, warning they would never make the battle for a fairer society top priority.

Addressing the STUC annual congress in Inverness, she said: “The Scottish Labour Party, while I have breath in my body, will listen to the views of trade unionists.

“I am already trying to reach out to those of your members who found themselves voting nationalist at the last election to ask them to be part of our crusade.

“My Scottish Labour Party is a crusade – to fight poverty, inequality and injustice.”

Tens of thousand of union members who support Labour financially through a levy on their membership fees voted for the SNP in last year’s Holyrood election.

Lamont urged the STUC to reject the “student politics” of independence which, she claimed, were already being watered down by Salmond in the face of weak public support.

She described SNP plans to join NATO and keep the monarchy, the pound and British-issued driving licences – if the country splits from the UK – as a “PR strategy to save their own skins”.

She added: “Progressive politics is not something to be bolted on to another cause.

“It’s our inspiration. It’s why trade unions were founded. It’s why trade unionists founded their own political party – the Labour Party. That is our pulse. Our heart.”

Lamont also launched an attack on the “deception and deceit” of the SNP Government.

She said: “They are a Government who tell us they are radical about childcare but we must wait seven years before – maybe, perhaps – it will be delivered.

“They trumpet new investment for four months after they have been told it has been withdrawn.

“The accuse others of lying when we expose the obscenity of NHS patients sleeping without blankets.”