Alex Miller
The refusal of the Labour Party-dominated local authorities in Scotland to pay their childcare workers a living wage has caused chaos for parents across Scotland. Childcare workers ("nursery nurses" in Scotland) have been strike since March 1. In a February 17 union ballot, 81% of 5000 workers supported taking indefinite strike action.
It is 15 years since childcare workers have had a pay review. The Scottish Socialist Party tabled a motion in parliament for March 11, calling on the Scottish Executive to agree to a fair, nationally negotiated settlement to the dispute.
Carolyn Leckie, an SSP Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), issued the following press release: "We are using some of our very limited parliamentary time of one and a half mornings per year to discuss two extremely important Scottish political issues, the council tax and the childcare workers dispute. Five thousand childcare workers have been taking industrial action for 10 months and the Scottish Socialist Party places itself squarely on the side of these low paid, undervalued and overwhelmingly female workers".
In an interview with the Scottish Socialist Voice, Alison Hughes, a Dundee childcare worker and member of UNISON, the public service workers' union that covers the childcare workers, explained that their pay has remained at poverty level even though they are now responsible for jobs previously carried out by teachers.
True to form, the Labour Party in Scotland, and the Blairite first minister, Jack McConnell, have responded by attacking the childcare workers for demanding a salary that would still only amount to just over one third of the salary currently enjoyed by pro-war, pro-big-business Labour MSPs.
Despite support from the Scottish National Party and the Greens, the SSP's motion in favour of the childcare workers was defeated by 70 votes to 44. As the strike approaches its third week, the resolve of this brave and especially exploited section of the workforce shows no signs of weakening.
[For more information, visit < http://www.unison-A HREF="mailto:scotland.org.uk"><scotland.org.uk>.Alex Miller is a member of the Australian Socialist Alliance, which works in solidarity with the SSP.]
From Green Left Weekly, March 24, 2004.
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