North Lanarkshire Update

A kind reader from North Lanarkshire has sent me an very interesting article from the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser, an extract of which is reproduced below.

Union boss quits in home care jobs row

The chairman of Unison in North Lanarkshire has quit his post over the possibility of privatisation of home care workers' jobs.

Alan Love accused the union of "appeasing" North Lanarkshire Council leader Jim Logue, rather than fighting to secure the jobs of home career staff.

In his resignation letter Mr Love stated:

""Unison seems to be more focused on appeasing the leader of the council and facility time than fighting for the jobs of our home support workers."

Now I wrote about the very subject just a couple of months ago and I found it rather strange that the local Unison branch were giving assurance on behalf of NLC - when you would expect the Council to be speaking for itself.

So who knows what's going on, but as I've said on the blog site many times it's not unusual for local trade union branches to get 'cosy' with Labour-run councils, and if you ask me that is what happened over equal pay in both North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire Councils. 

Facility time, by the way, is the paid time off that local union reps are given to carry out their union responsibilities (instead of doing their day jobs) which led to a huge  dispute with the Unite trade union and the near shut down of the giant Ineos plant in Grangemouth.

When I get a minute I'll publish the full article from the Coatbridge and Airdrie Advertiser along with my previous posts to the blog site about the threat to the Home Care service.