Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

The BBC reports that Scotland's police officers are the latest group to receive special recognition from the Scottish Government which has found an additional £125 million over the next 3 years to fund a 6.5% pay increase. Now I don't begrudge police officers a pay award which adds and extra £40 million every year to the Police Scotland pay bill - well in excess of £400 million over the next 10 years. But if the Scottish Government can find that kind of extra money for police officers, school teachers and the shipbuilding industry - surely they can find a way to help Glasgow City Council meet the costs of equal pay. For example, allowing Scotland's largest council to borrow £500 million and repay this over over 50 years would provide Glasgow with a way forward, but the City Council can't do this on its own - only the Scottish Government has the power to make this happen.     https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-45653588 Scottish police o...

In the past couple of days there has been a flood of enquiries to the A4ES office about the status of people's equal pay claims in Glasgow. A4ES claimants can actually check these details themselves online and if anything needs updating, for example a change of address, this can be done on line as well. The A4ES web site can be found at:   www.a4es.co.uk The procedure for A4ES clients to access the records system is explained below, but there is no need for anyone to contact the Glasgow Employment Tribunal office.     If any claimants have particular concerns, the best way to raise a query is by email to the A4ES office at: enquiries@action4equality.co.uk         A4ES - Checking Your Details Lots of readers from Glasgow have been in touch recently to check on the status of their equal pay claims with Action 4 Equality Scotland (A4ES) and/or to update their personal details on the A4ES records system. Y...

Here's a great article by CNN's Chris Cillizza which gives an insight into the ups and downs of political reporting when America's president and 'leader of the free world' is an unstable megalomaniac.        https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/26/politics/donald-trump-press-conference-analysis/index.html Donald Trump's me, me, me, me press conference Washington (CNN) On the eve of a potentially make or break moment for his Supreme Court nominee, President Donald Trump held a press conference to talk about his favorite subject: Himself. Asked about whether he believed the women who had made accusations of sexual assault or inappropriate conduct against Brett Kavanaugh were liars, Trump responded by noting that he also had been the target of allegations like this. "I've been accused ... by four or five women, who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me who made a lot of money," Trump said. (Fact check: More than a dozen women ...

Here's an update from Unison on the strike action that's planned in support of the fight for equal pay in Glasgow. Equal Pay Strike Action Update Last week the UNISON branch made a request to the UNISON UK Leadership for strike action in Education and Cordia. Due to the restrictions of the current anti-trade union laws the exact details of the request cannot be shared at the moment however the shops stewards from the two groups have been involved in determining our next steps. Our 5,000 UNISON members will now move towards strike action, and we will co-ordinate that action with our sisters and brothers in the GMB trade union. We have given the council ten months to make progress on addressing the historical discrimination suffer by thousands of workers across the council. However the council has agreed nothing. Offered nothing. All we have had are meetings about meetings, talks about talks and more court hearings. It’s time for some action. Watch this space….. Now organisi...