Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

In the days ahead I plan to share details of my FOI requests to Glasgow City Council over its 'unfit for purpose' WPBR pay scheme and the role played by senior officials who oversaw the scheme's introduction back in 2006/07. Council bosses now claim that it's too troublesome and too costly to provide this information, i.e. more than £600, but if you ask me the workforce and the taxpayer are entitled to know what exactly went on and how Scotland's largest council got itself into this terrible mess.   So this is a important campaign issue on which I hope to get cross party support from the SNP, Labour, Green and Conservative groups in Glasgow City Council.      Glasgow's Great Equal Pay Cover-Up (30/10/18) Here's a letter I sent to Susan Aitken recently regarding the role played by senior council officials when Glasgow's WPBR pay scheme was introduced back in 2006/07. The council's chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, has claimed

The fight for equal pay has been raging in Glasgow for the past 13 years, during which time Kevin McKenna has had precious little to say, but while The Herald columnist has arrived late to the 'party', he has finally done so and with a bit of a bang, I have to say. Kevin's piece in The Herald lays into the role played by senior council officials which I've been banging on about via my blog for ages, as regular readers know. Yet as well as Annemarie O'Donnell and Carole Forrest, Kevin takes a well-deserved swipe at: Previous Labour councils in Glasgow Richard Leonard, Scottish Labour leader Susan Aitken, the present SNP Council leader Nicola Sturgeon, Glasgow MSP and First Minister If you ask me, all of Kevin's criticisms are reasonable and well made although it would have been nice if he had highlighted the lead role played by Stefan Cross and Action 4 Equality Scotland (A4ES) over the years, as well as the two striking trade unions, GM

Well done to the GMB union for challenging the ugly, hateful rhetoric on social media over Glasgow's historic equal pay strike. And well done also to the SNP for suspending the 'Cybernut'  involved, a chap called Gareth Wardell who goes by the name of 'Grouse Beater' on social media.  As I said yesterday on Twitter: "I do hope Nicola Sturgeon wades into the row because there is no excuse for this kind of loathsome behaviour - on Twitter or anywhere else. Name, shame and kick 'Grouse Beater' into touch - that's what I would do. A win, win all round if you ask me. If only Glasgow's MSPs had come along to last week's March and Rally in support of Equal Pay, they would have seen for themselves that the talk about 'bussing supporters in from England' is just idle, ill-informed  racially motivated nonsense.       https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17188323.snp-suspends-member-over-anti-semitic-blog/ SNP suspends member