Glasgow - Equal Pay Update
Lots of readers have sent me copies of their response letters from Susan Aitken regarding the long-awaited, follow-up meeting the Council Leader promised to hold with Glasgow's equal pay claimants.
The contents all seem the same to me, so I assume they are a 'standard letter' from the Leader's office.
In any event, I suspect people will be disappointed at the Council Leader's reluctance to report back directly to the claimants which Susan agreed to herself - at a previous meeting in the Dixon Halls more than a year ago, way back in 2017.
But now the Leader's office is claiming some 'confusion' over dates, times and venues as the problem which is a load of old baloney if you ask me - because previous meetings have always been held at 2pm and if there was a real issue over a suitable venue, I'm sure that the Dixon Halls is still generally available.
The real point is that the Council Leader has an office and staff to organise her diary and if Susan really wanted a meeting, I'm sure one could be organised within a matter of days.
However, the much more important issue is that the Council Leader is now saying that reporting back directly to the Claimants would create some kind of conflict with the ongoing settlement negotiations which have been dragging on for more than a year.
Now I find this odd, I have to say, because the meetings with claimants have never been about 'negotiations' - instead they've provided the Council Leader with an opportunity to hear directly from the people on the front line of this long-running dispute.
In my view, these meeting have proved to be very valuable in the past and there has never been any suggestion that they should substitute for the ongoing talks between the Council and the Claimants' representatives - which some folks in the Council don't like to be reported, by the way.
Who knows, maybe if the Council Leader had engaged more directly with the claimants throughout 2018, things might never have got to the point where Glasgow faced an equal pay strike for the first time in its history back in October 2018?
So, I hope that Susan reflects on things over the festive break because it's 'good to talk' and, as everyone knows, the claimants are a friendly bunch who want their voices to be heard after so many years of being ignored.
Glasgow - I am Spartacus! (29/11/18)
I've had a great response to my 'I am Spartacus' post and many readers have already taken up my suggestion about dropping a line to the Glasgow City Council Leader, Susan Aitken.
What puzzles me is that politicians are always desperate for an audience when it suits them - consider the Brexit debacle, for example, where Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon are all vying to put their particular pitch to MPs and the public at large.
Yet over Equal Pay and the WPBR, the biggest financial issues to confront Glasgow in years, the City Council's political leadership is suddenly reluctant to meet and explain its position to the workers directly involved.
So much for local democracy, but keep up the good work - more to follow soon.
No one has done more in recent years to support the fight for equal pay in Glasgow than our own Frances Stojilkovic, a stalwart of the Council's Home Care service since 2004.
Yet for all the selfless work Frances has done in spreading the word about equal pay and bringing thousands of low paid council workers together, Frances is now being 'blanked' by local politicians including the Council Leader, Susan Aitken.
Now I find this very strange, I have to say.
Because it wasn't very long ago, first as the SNP Opposition Leader and subsequently as the new Leader of the Council (from May 2017), that Susan was delighted to engage with Frances and others fighting for their rights to equal pay.
In fact, I was present at the Dixon Halls in Govanhill, way back in 2017, when Susan Aitken promised to hold a follow-up meeting in the New Year to update Glasgow's claimants on progress in resolving their long-standing equal pay claims, perhaps eve using the City Chambers as a venue.
I understood this follow-up meeting as an effort to continue with the dialogue over equal pay that had been built up during Susan Aitken's time as SNP Opposition Leader and I'm sure that everyone else in the Dixon Halls thought the same thing too.
But what has happened since is quite shameful if you ask me, because Frances is now being given the cold-shoulder by the Leader's office to the point that she doesn't even get a response to her phone calls and emails.
Whatever happened to local democracy, I ask myself?
Just what is it about 'power and politicians' that makes otherwise normal, decent people behave in this way?
Without going into the sheer rudeness and bad manners involved.
I have to admit to feeling a little bit outraged that someone who has done so much for her fellow workers, and the citizens of Glasgow, can be treated so shabbily.
So I am inviting readers to show their solidarity with Frances by raising this issue directly with the Council Leader via email.
In what you might describe as an Glasgow Equal Pay reworking of 'I am Spartacus' - with a new title of 'I am Frances Stojilkovic'.
Here's the kind of email I would encourage claimants to send to the Council Leader Susan Aitken at the following email address: susan.aitken@glasgow.gov.uk
Dear Susan
I understand that your office is 'blanking' Frances Stojilkovic by not returning her calls and emails over a planned meeting for you, as Council Leader, to report back on the progress (or lack of progress) in resolving Glasgow's equal pay claims.
Good manners cost nothing and I am very disappointed to hear that Frances is now being given the 'run around' and treated so disrespectfully.
Can I just say that Frances speaks for me and many other equal pay claimants in Glasgow - We are all Frances Stojilkovic!
So I hope you will reflect on what the claimants have to say on this matter and ask your office to treat Frances with the respect and consideration she deserves.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely
Insert your name name and email address
