https://themilitant.com/2018/11/03/women-workers-in-glasgow-lead-battle-to-win-equal-pay/
Women workers in Glasgow lead battle to win equal pay
By Anne Howie
Vol. 82/No. 42
November 12, 2018
During two-day strike for equal pay, local council workers in Glasgow,
Scotland, mostly women, win support of fellow trade unionists Oct. 23.
Male co-workers wouldn’t cross picket lines.
Militant/Anne Howie
During two-day strike for equal pay, local council workers in Glasgow,
Scotland, mostly women, win support of fellow trade unionists Oct. 23.
Male co-workers wouldn’t cross picket lines.
GLASGOW, Scotland — Chanting “What do we want? Equal pay. When do we
want it? Now!” Some 8,000 workers, mainly women, marched here Oct. 23 on
the first day of a two-day strike. School cleaners, cooks and teaching
assistants, home-care workers and others — members of Unison and GMB
trade unions — were striking to demand Glasgow City Council, their boss,
pay them for years of being paid less than workers in predominantly male
jobs. There are workers like them all across the country.
The day started with lively and well-attended picket lines throughout
the city. Hundreds of primary schools and nurseries were shut down.
As the marchers made their way to George Square, bus and other drivers
blew horns in support. Other workers left their jobs and lined the
streets applauding. Bridget Farren, a social care worker and Unison
member not on strike, joined the rally on her lunch break. “If we’re
divided it’s harder to fight,” she told the Militant. “We all need to
stand together.”
“This is a fight for all,” said Kevin Connolly, a Unison member at a
school support center. “We have a common enemy in the council executive.”
The cleansing department — 600 street sweepers, refuse collectors and
road workers, mainly male members of the GMB — refused to cross picket
lines, bringing work to a halt for two days. The council threatened
legal action against the union.
Long-running battle
The dispute over equal pay is a long-running fight. Last year the Court
of Session, Scotland’s highest civil court, ruled in favor of women
workers who had argued that both the council’s 2006 Workforce Pay and
Benefits Review and the previous pay structure discriminated against
women. The 2006 review supposedly eliminated unequal pay, and was signed
off by union officials.
But it didn’t stop pay discrimination. Workers contracted for more than
37 hours a week qualified for higher pay. While women make up 70 percent
of the council workforce, the vast majority works less than 35 hours.
The pay differential is around £3 per hour ($3.85).
Because of union endorsement of the pay review, thousands of women were
forced to turn to the courts, demanding they get the higher rates and
back pay as well. “I first made a claim for equal pay in 2006,” Ann
Walker, a member of the GMB, told the Militant. “I have two jobs to make
a living, both with the council — as a classroom assistant at St
Joseph’s Primary School and at a special needs school. If I had equal
pay, I’d only need one.” Many other women described having to work two
or even three jobs.
The previous Labour Party-controlled city administration fought workers
in the courts. Last year the Scottish National Party won control of the
council, in part because they pledged to settle the dispute. But 10
months of talks and 21 meetings have failed to produce a settlement.
The fight in Glasgow is part of a broader picture of challenges to
second-class pay rates for women throughout the U.K. Many other local
councils have been forced to settle. In Birmingham, women workers won a
payout totaling £1 billion. Another legal challenge could affect
200,000, mainly female, Tesco supermarket workers. Similar actions are
underway against Sainsbury’s and Asda supermarkets.
The Equal Pay Act became law in the U.K. in 1970, a direct result of a
1968 strike by women workers at Ford Motor Company. But the pay gap
remains today, although it has narrowed.
The Glasgow strike is being closely watched by workers and bosses alike.
At the rally, striker after striker got up to tell their stories.
Janice Robertson, a Support For Learning worker, said, “They dangled a
carrot in front of us 12 years ago, then they withdrew it and said they
would negotiate. Now they want to dangle the carrot again. We’re here to
say that carrots are for donkeys.”
Supporters of the Militant went door to door in the working-class
Polmadie area after the rally. Every worker we spoke to backed the
strike. “I’m with the strikers all the way,” Joe McTeer, a private-hire
cabbie, said. Pointing to coverage in the Militant of Uber drivers’
protests in London, he added, “Taxi drivers need to stand together too.”
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Isaac Asimov
“Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in
telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after
death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst
out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement,
and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how
wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous
something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”
― Isaac Asimov
