Glasgow's Politicians

Stefan Cross commented on my latest 'Glasgow and Equal Pay' post and what Stefan had to say resulted in a big response via email, Facebook and Twitter.

I have now finally heard from my two local councillors (Jennifer Layden and Greg Hepburn) on which I'll have more to say soon, but the point Stefan is driving at is that the council's political leaders seem strangely reluctant to engage with the claimants representatives.

For example, A4ES offered recently to hold a special briefing for the new Council leadership along the same kind of lines as the event organised for MSPs and MPs back in February 2018 - an initial presentation followed by a Question and Answer session.

But that invitation was turned down even though the aim was to get the claimants' message across directly to the politicians, in a calm atmosphere, and with input from A4ES, GMB and Unison - just like the February MSP/MP event.

The problem is that as things stand the views of A4ES, GMB and Unison are being interpreted and fed back to the Council leadership by the same group of officials who have been defending the WPBR 'tooth and nail' for the past 10 years!

Stefan Cross's Profile Photo, Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, eyeglasses and beard

Sadly SNP is being sucked into the swamp. Afraid to meet claimants reps, taking only briefing from officers

No good changing the organ grinder if the organ grinder keeps the same monkeys

M

What does all u out there who voted for them th8nk now ? They will never change tartan Tories. Keep trying Stefan this money belongs to the people who worked damn hard

A

Aye. Don’t rock the boat syndrome.

M

I smell a stinky swamp maybe an all out strike might bring them to the table enough is enough

T

Maybe we should go to there surgeries and bombard them?

F

As i said before we need an all out STRIKE then lets see wate they do

S

Jennifer and Greg this is plain rude, get yer finger oot and start meeting and greeting before we all start looking like the featured picture. Thank you

L

I'm like everyone else is getting fed up with the powers that be. Who do they think they are. They are our representatives and should be willing to met and discuss this issue.....i worked hard and earned every bloody penny they owe me. I want what's owed Asap. Interest pension contributions included. if we all with hold our council tax they would soon take us to court for what's due. Pay up for Glasgow female workers.....

P

All out strike seems good to me !!!fed up.waiting pay up as the saying goes simple

J

We should all go along to their surgeries after all we are the people who put them in their jobs

A

I know you say Stefan strike is not the answer but we’re not getting anywhere how slow can they go - honest to god be different if we owed them money it would be off our wages it’s a joke there making a joke of us x

K

I thought Nicola Sturgeon told them to get it sorted, or is this not true Stefan, she should be telling them to get it all done and dusted its been goin on long enough ,.

J

Think al hold back on paying increase in council tax see how that goes down

J

Glasgow and Equal Pay (15/03/18)

As regular readers know, I have made some progress as far as meeting up with local politicians in this little corner of Glasgow is concerned - I have already held a useful meeting with John Mason, my local MSP, and have a discussion scheduled with my local MP Alison Thewliss on Monday 26 March.

Alison Thewliss was an elected councillor in Glasgow between 2007 - 2015, I believe, and so should be up to speed with the WPBR, for example, and the general background to the long fight for equal pay in Scotland's largest local council.

But I am still being given the run-around by my two local SNP councillors (Jennifer Layden and Greg Hepburn) who for some strange reason are not responding to my email and phone message requests for a 'sit down' discussion.

Jennifer Layden (SNP)
Picture Not Available

Greg Hepburn (SNP)
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Now I find this quite astonishing, I have to say, especially as I voted for them at the last local council elections, but Jennifer and Greg don't know me, if they think this kind of rudeness and discourtesy will put me off.

So I plan to go along to a future 'councillor's surgery' as that seems to to be the only way I'll get to meet with my two local SNP representatives although to be honest I did expected it would be such a struggle to arrange a friendly discussion.

A big part of the problem when the WPBR was introduced back in 2007 is that a small group of senior officials in Glasgow City Chambers were given a free hand to do what they liked without proper checks and balances being put in place to hold them to account.

In all likelihood, the majority of local councillors were kept in the dark and had little understanding as to what was really going on since the 'process' was taking place behind closed doors.

And that's what I intend to tackle though my campaigning work and the blog site - and via discussions with local politicians in Glasgow who are prepared to do things differently this time around by learning the lessons of the past.

Glasgow's MPs and MSPs (07/03/18)

I've sent dozens of emails and Tweets to my local MP Alison Thewliss about the fight for equal pay in Glasgow and I wrote to Alison recently asking for a meeting to discuss the City Council's WPBR pay scheme.

I still haven't received a response to my meeting request which was sent via email on Friday 23 February 2018.

So I laughed my head off when I read this post on Facebook from The Govanhill Community Campaign.

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Now I know MPs are busy, I'm busy as well, as are the equal pay claimants fighting for their rights in Glasgow City Council.

So surely Alison and other local politicians can show more interest in the subject than some of them have shown up until now.

Glasgow's 'Quiet Bunch' (15/12/17)

Glasgow's MSPs and MPs are proving to be more like 'The Quiet Bunch' than 'The Wild Bunch' when it comes to the fight for equal pay with Scotland's largest local council.

Now I've been keeping all Glasgow politicians - local councillors, MSPs and MPs - up to speed with what's been happening in recent weeks and months, yet there seems to be a strange reluctance to get directly involved.

I certainly expected the politicians to show more interest in what's happening in their own back yard and to speak up on important issues such as the prospect of the City Council trying to overturn a unanimous judgment from Scotland's highest civil court, the Court of Session.

Maybe they're all too busy doing their Christmas shopping, but whatever the reason I'm sure this issue is going to return with a real vengeance in the New Year.

Glasgow MSPs and MPs (08//11/17)

I sent a copy of yesterday's post on 'The Fight for Equal Pay' to all Glasgow MSPs and MPs along with the following Twitter message:

"Equal pay claimants demand respect from Glasgow City Council after years of being treated as second-class citizens"

So far at least, I've heard nothing back - not a 'Like', 'Retweet', message of support or request for further information.

Which strikes me as a bit odd because Glasgow's MSPs and MPs have strong views on just about every issue under the sun, if their Twitter feeds are anything to go by.

And you would think that Glasgow's politicians would be taking a very keen interest in such a long running struggle which is taking place right under their noses.

In any event, it's important that equal pay claimants keep demanding support from their local MSPs and MPs because we're not out of the woods yet - not by a long chalk.

MSPs and MPs have a big role to play in the weeks ahead as the City Council decides whether to pursue an appeal to the UK Supreme Court and over the outstanding issue of coming clean over its WPBR pay arrangements.

Surely it's not too much to ask Glasgow's politicians to get behind their local constituents on the question of openness, transparency and equal pay?

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Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser