Socialist Party Scotland (CWI)

The biggest Scottish teachers union the EIS has voted at its conference to ballot its members for industrial action over Curriculum for Excellence workload and to protect teachers’ pensions. The unanimous vote on workload was taken when speaker after speaker condemned the way the new courses were being introduced, the unreasonable burden being placed upon teachers to make it work and the fact that the Scottish Government was not listening to classroom teachers who now regard it as a "speeding juggernaut" which is clearly out of control.

During July and August, Scotland’s council workers will be balloted by their trade unions on industrial action over the local government employers (CoSLA) offer of a 1% for current financial year 2013/14 and the introduction of the Scottish Living Wage (SLW) of £7.50. UNISON and UNITE members rejected the offer in consultative ballots earlier in the year and the unions have at last moved up a gear and begun the official industrial action processes.

Unite the union held a very successful protest outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 2nd May. About 50 activists from around Scotland, including blacklisted workers and other trade unionists gathered at the parliament in a vibrant, colourful and vocal expression of their disgust at this breach of a workers human right to work.

The Scottish Trade Union Congress have passed a motion in support of a one-day general strike in Scotland in response to the savage austerity being carried out by the ConDem government. The debate and vote at the STUC was overwhelmingly in favour of the composite motion which called on the STUC general council to: "coordinate among affiliates and with the British TUC an industrial action strategy, including a Scotland-wide one-day strike, aligned with any industrial action at a UK level as appropriate."

The UK wide PCS strike was hugely supported at offices and workplaces across Scotland. Area after area reported 80%-90% plus support among union members for the action. Some were as high as 100%, with PCS workplaces empty of workers, except a handful of non-union members. Socialist Party Scotland members visited many picket lines across the country, including in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Dundee. Reports below

150 construction workers, their families and supporters took part in an anti-blacklisting demonstration in Dundee on Saturday 9th March. Dundee was chosen for the protest partly because construction giant McAlpine’s, a prominent collaborator with blacklisting, is a major contractor on the Dundee waterfront project. But also because of the long running campaign by local retired electricians Francie Graham and Stewart Merchant, who suffered as a result of the policy of refusing to employ trade union activists in the construction industry.

Tanker drivers, members of the Unite trade union at Grangemouth Oil refeinery, have won a major victory over the BP multinational in a dispute over wages and pensions. Following a 72 hour strike (see here) and the threat of another 4 days of strike action, BP have agreed to the majority of the workers' demands. This important victory should be an inspiration to all workers facing attacks by their employers and the ConDem government. Strikes do indeed work.

BP tanker drivers from the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland last week came out on a 72-hour strike against cuts to pay and pensions. In a militant show of force, these workers in the union Unite are determined that they will not back down in their dispute with an obscenely rich company that regularly makes around £1 billion in profit a month. The attacks on pensions see some workers threatened with losses of up to £13,000 a year and most workers are also faced with current cuts of £1,400 a year to their pay.

On Thursday 7th February Glasow City Council is meeting to discuss its budget. The Labour run authority is proposing to make a further £70 million in cuts. Glasgow City Unison branch secretary, Brian Smith, has written an open letter on behalf of the union's 11,000 members, demanding that Glasgow councillors refuse to make the cuts and calling for defiance of ConDem austerity by elected politicians.

The EIS, the biggest education union in Scotland,  is to ballot its members on the prospect of further industrial action should current negotiations with the Scottish Government on pensions fail to reach agreement. The teachers union had held back from industrial action, following the mass strike on N30 2011, after assurances from the Scottish Government about entering into meaningful discussions.

Over 200 people attended the lobby of Glasgow City Council on January 23rd in order to demand the reversal of the plan to close three day care centres for people with learning disabilities. The turnout - which included day care centre users, their families, workers / trade unionists, and anti-cuts campaigners - was significantly larger than previous protests against closures and represents a rising level of anger against the cuts affecting the most vunerable in society, and a rising determination to do something about it.

The 29th January 2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the historic 1993 struggle of Timex workers in Dundee. The almost 8 month long dispute was the most significant industrial struggle in the history of the city, involving mass picketing and demonstrations, solidarity walkout’s and strike action as well as clashes with the police who acted as a private security force for the Timex corporation. The struggle of these courageous workers has important lessons for today at a time of savage attacks on workers' rights and living standards. And at a time when mass trade union struggle is back on the agenda.

By Socialist Party Scotland reporters. Posted 1st December 2012

Unison’s Scottish Council has voted to instruct the union to "immediately take the necessary steps to promote with all STUC affiliated unions the need for a coordinated industrial action strategy, beginning with a one-day strike across Scotland." All 200 delegates representing 160,000 Unison members working in local government, health, education, charities, Quangos and police support staff, unanimously supported a motion from the Glasgow City branch.

The white flag of surrender is currently flying over Unison HQ. For five and half years the union bureaucracy have sought to justify and defend the witch-hunt against four Unison activists and Socialist Party members. They have spent over £100,000 and have been prepared to lose thousands of defecting members and many good activists.

The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference in Glasgow on 27th October heard uplifting reports from an array of trade unionists from the public and private sector on the theme of fighting the austerity onslaught and building towards a 24-hour general strike. Shop stewards and trade union activists from Unison, Unite, EIS, Usdaw and PCS attended from a range of sectors including local government, the NHS, education, construction, retail and the civil service.