Texas Cowboy

So Stefan has headed off to the Lone Star State of Texas for a well deserved break, but no matter where you go in the world it is impossible to escape completely from the fight for equal pay.

For example, here's Gene Autry singing Deep in the Heart of Texas which is a strange coincidence because the 'Singing Cowboy' who was born in Texas also featured in one of my favourite blog posts from last year.

'Here Comes Santa Claus' explains how equal pay settlement negotiations got back on track, but only after Glasgow's historic equal pay strike and the decision of A4ES, GMB and Unison to take all the outstanding equal pay claims back to the Employment Tribunals.  

  

'Here Comes Santa Claus' (08/11/18)

Glasgow City Council has a peculiar approach to conflict resolution which is all about throwing its weight around.
  
For months equal pay settlement talks were going round and round in circles, until in August the Council announced there would be no negotiations and that senior officials would come back in December with a Council offer to end its long-running equal pay dispute.

Now this 'Hear Comes Santa Claus' strategy must have been approved in advance by the Council's chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, who presumably expected the Claimants to respond with generous applause, wild celebrations and general acclaim.  

But that's not how negotiations work, of course, which ought to have been obvious to any reasonable person - just as any reasonable person could also tell you that Glasgow's 37 hour 'rule' was deliberately designed to discriminate against the City Council's largely female workforce. 

So the Claimants are not going to sit back and wait on the wise old heads in the Council returning in December with settlement proposals that GCC can 'afford', as opposed to an agreement based on what the claimants are 'due' and which has been negotiated in good faith with the Claimants Representatives.

Nobody's that stupid and in just in case Annemarie O'Donnell doesn't know it already - Glaswegians don't believe in Santa Claus and Glaswegian heads don't button up the back.