Scotland's future

( January 2008)

 

GRAHAME SMITH is general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress and explains how unions are reaching out to a new generation.

 

THIS month, the Scottish Parliament will consider a member's motion tabled by Falkirk East MSP Cathy Peattie, who is convenor of the Labour Trade Union Group in the parliament.

The motion recognises the contribution made by young people to the Scottish economy, but also registers concerns at the low wages, job insecurity and serious health and safety risks that they face.

The Scottish TUC Youth Committee will be visiting the Scottish Parliament and attending the debate, but also, as part of a wider week of parliamentary activities organised by the STUC, young members will be speaking with MSPs on a range of different issues.

One of the priorities for trade unions is quite simply to demonstrate the relevance of collective organisation and recruit the young people to membership, giving clear support to young workers.

 

Many unions continue to organise their own young members' training courses, representative committees and conferences and are using new ways to improve communications through e-newsletters, mobile phone alerts and internet social networking sites such as Facebook.

The 2007 STUC Youth Conference agreed to work in a number of areas, including with young migrant workers and the National Union of Students and to focus on modern apprenticeships, both in terms of trade union recruitment and tackling gender segregation.

 

We need apprenticeship schemes which challenge the continued employment of young women in low-paid sectors, creating wider opportunities combined with tackling wage levels in, for example, childcare and care services.

There are differences in the education and training system in Scotland compared with the legislation covering England and Wales, but the main areas of concern are similar. However, at this point in time, the Scottish National Party-led Scottish government has indicated that it will not be bringing forward proposals to require 16 to 18-year-olds to remain in education.

 

The Scottish Parliament debate will allow MSPs to highlight how trade union bargaining has made a real difference for young people - for instance, at Ineos in Grangemouth, where, as part of the wage deal, apprentices are guaranteed employment on completion of their apprenticeships.

A disproportionate number of workers in the hotel and restaurants sector are young people under the age of 24. The March 2007 Office for National Statistics labour force survey gives a figure of 49.9 per cent, compared to 15.1 per cent for workers under 24 across the economy as a whole.

 

Numerous studies confirm that many businesses in this sector pay only the statutory minimum wage, which currently stands at £5.35 an hour, but the lower hourly rate for under 22s - £4.60 for 18–21-year-olds and £3.40 for 16-18-year-olds - is increasingly common.

 

The experience in the hospitality sector is often one of low wages, high staff turnover and limited or no opportunities for training and progression. In Scotland, we know that an increasing number of migrant workers, including many young people, work in this sector and unions are already making welcome headway in recruiting among them.

Many young workers in hospitality and other service sectors are part-time employees and many are working students.

This is an area where the STUC is working with the National Union of Students in Scotland in raising awareness of employment rights and encouraging union recruitment.

With funding agreed by the previous Labour-led administration in Scotland, a joint STUC/TUC Unions into Schools project has been very successful in making an important link in raising awareness among young people - future workers and employers - about the role of unions and how to build a good working environment.

The project enables union reps to discuss with school students key issues, including health and safety, workers' rights, the union response to globalisation and international union solidarity, the law at work, the minimum wage, the living wage campaign, trade union representation and the role of the union in collective negotiations.

The sessions have been delivered in an interactive style and are normally delivered by two trained schools reps.

 

The evidence garnered during these school visits has backed up research suggesting that around half of school students are working either part time or on a casual basis while still in school. They often have questions and queries about their current working conditions and reps are able to offer answers based on their experience and knowledge of the law.

A number of trade unionists in Scotland have now undergone the training and the new Scottish government is being urged to continue to fund this project in the future.

Another area of significance for young workers is the enhancement of skills and learning opportunities while in work. The UK Employment Act 2002 gave statutory recognition to union learning reps, with responsibility for promotion and representation of collective and individual learning needs in the workplace.

A wide range of schemes and opportunities now exist across the country and, in Scotland, the government recently announced continued support for the Scottish Union Learning Fund (SULF).

There are over 1,000 workplace union learning reps in Scotland, benefiting workers of all ages, but of particular significance for younger workers.

The recent independent SULF evaluation revealed that 97 per cent of those who had accessed courses or events through the union route indicated that they planned to continue their studies.

As Scotland's parliament and government consider the needs of the Scottish economy and the wider skills agenda, we should not underestimate the contribution made through workplace negotiation and agreements.

The Scottish Union Academy will launch in Scotland in 2008 and will be the equivalent of the TUC Unionlearn.

This year brings many opportunities for trade unions and for the government to make a real difference in the employment conditions and job opportunities for young people. The Scottish TUC will be placing these issues at the heart of our work in the coming year.

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Ideological opportunity

(Thursday 06 March 2008)

 

GREGOR GALL argues that unions should make their industrial fight a political fight as well. Gregor Gall is professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire centre for research in employment studies.

 

WHERE and when does fighting the symptoms of neoliberalism become a fight against neoliberalism itself? The answer may be the public sector this year.

In 2007, we saw the critical failure to gain lift-off for sustained and co-ordinated industrial resistance against the 2 per cent public-sector pay norm.

Fortunately, the trade union movement has another opportunity to challenge government policy in the months to come.

Many of the earliest battles will be hangovers from last year. Chief among them are PCS in the Civil Service and Department of Work and Pensions, the prison officers and police officers.

They will be joined later by teachers, lecturers, local government and health workers.

But their success and wider impact will depend on the way these battles are fought.

Unions could choose to fight the pay norm solely on pay, even using the idea of maintaining pay differentials to turn the campaign into a competitive, sectional one. That way lies disaster, as only a united fight has a chance of success.

 

But unions could also decide to go in another direction by choosing to make their industrial fight a political fight as well.

The traditional arguments about money for welfare and not warfare, about public decency demanding public services not privatisation and about services being for people not profit all have a renewed relevance for public-sector unions today.

 

In the public sector, strikes can take on a much more political character than they do in the private sector because the government is the ultimate employer.

Unions are much more likely to be able to generate political heat here by politically challenging the government policy through strike action because the government is the employer and it is implementing neoliberalism.

Public-sector union leaders would neither be preaching to the converted nor having a dialogue with the deaf if they chose to lead their members into battle on this front.

After a decade of new Labour, public-sector workers are increasingly receptive to the argument that the state of their pay and conditions is intrinsically linked to the state of the part of the public services that they work in.

 

Despite countless promises and record absolute spending, the public services are nowhere near where they should be or where we were told they would be by the then incoming Labour government.

The introduction of targets, internal markets and contracting out - the epitome of neoliberal medicine - are likely to be high up the list of detested initiatives that public-sector workers think are wrecking the public services.

Teasing out and tying together these issues would be a great service in consciousness-raising by the union leaderships for their members.

It would solidify their industrial action over pay and conditions, giving it a higher purpose. And it would make political capital out of industrial action, providing the cutting edge of the battle against neoliberalism.

 

For all those workers and citizens who do not work in the public sector but who rely on those services provided by public-sector workers, the reasons why they should support the battle of the public-sector unions would be made very clear - pay and job cuts affect the quality and quantity of the services.

There is no reason why we could not witness the kind of attendance of US party members and voters in their primary elections in towns and cities up and down the country where a hard-hitting connection is made between the industrial action and the defence of public services. The industrial action provides a hook for the political arguments.

It is in these circumstances of workers beginning to draw deeper conclusions about what seem relatively superficial events that we could see fighting the symptoms of neoliberalism becoming a fight against neoliberalism itself.

In the debate and discussion about how to fight pay and job cuts, some workers will be able to engage in joined-up thinking where they begin to see the once invisible links between government policy, the market and public provision.

Where I've had the opportunity in recent months to speak to union activists in the CWU, PCS, FBU, RMT, UCU, UNISON and trades council in Edinburgh, where I live, I've suggested that we meet up to discuss holding a local conference to push this process forward. Unions in other localities and at the national level need to think about doing similarly.

There is an old Marxist adage that workers' consciousness changes and changes furthest through mass, active struggle. And, while that holds true despite low levels of struggle in recent years in Britain, the intervention of leaders and activists can help influence the direction and pace of that change.

It is only the left in the unions that wants to and can give this kind of political and strategic leadership. There has never been a more opportune time for it to step up to the plate and perform this role.

But this requires maximum support for the left union leaders who are willing to undertake this role and maximum unity among the left activists elsewhere.

By working together on a commonly agreed strategy, this coming year could be a turning point. Again, the Morning Star conference on Saturday April 19 in central London should be a useful aid to doing so.