{"id":721,"date":"2021-10-15T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T11:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ecosocialist.scot\/?p=721"},"modified":"2021-10-16T07:50:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T07:50:18","slug":"scottish-workers-vote-to-strike-during-cop26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecosocialist.scot\/?p=721","title":{"rendered":"Scottish workers vote to strike during COP26"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scottish trade union members in two unions – RMT members on ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper, and GMB members in Glasgow City Council – have voted overwhelmingly to strike during COP26<\/a> in November.\u00a0 Industrial action is also likely at the Stagecoach bus company<\/a> by Unite the Union members.\u00a0\u00a0 Mike Picken <\/em>reports for ecosocialist.scot<\/a><\/em> on what could be a forthcoming ‘Scottish Winter of Discontent’.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Further strikes threatened on ScotRail network<\/h2>\n

84% of the 2,000 members of the RMT working on ScotRail voted to hold strike action across Scotland over a pay claim<\/a>.\u00a0 The strikes could be held during the COP26 in Glasgow from 1-11 November when transport systems will already be under severe pressure.<\/p>\n

The dispute has provoked the SNP government transport minister, Graeme Dey, into trying to challenge the RMT union and the legitimacy of the ballot vote.\u00a0 In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland, Dey claimed the dispute was ‘no longer valid’ as a new pay offer had been made.\u00a0 ScotRail had announced after the ballot had commenced that they would make a miserly two year 4.7% pay offer.\u00a0 This is likely to be well below inflation rates, given the current Tory cost-of-living crisis across Britain with soaring energy costs and road haulage distribution problems, caused in part by skilled labour shortages because of the Tory pursuit of Brexit at all costs.\u00a0 The Tories are desperately trying to apply sticking plaster to the damage done to the road haulage industriy by the exclusion of EU workers from the Labour force – it doesn’t seem to have occured to them to expand rail freight as an alternative to diesel lorries clogging up the roads.\u00a0 The below inflation pay offer from ScotRail was also coupled with major reductions in working conditions and standards.\u00a0 The RMT has responded by ridiculing the offer and demanding that the Scottish government get round the table with ScotRail and the RMT to put forward a reasonable offer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0RMT Scotland organiser Michael Hogg, a former miner, said it was a \u201clousy, rotten offer\u201d<\/strong> of a 4.7% increase [over two years] which was not worthy of consideration because it required \u201cmembers to sell hard-earned terms and conditions in order to get a pay rise\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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RMT Organiser Michael Hogg<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

ScotRail has been in dispute with the RMT for many months over conductor and ticket examiner conditions and pay and the RMT have recently been holding strikes on Sundays which has shut much of the network down.\u00a0 Senior figures in the SNP government have already disgraced themselves by trying to claim that the dispute is being manipulated by the RMT leadership in London, despite the fact that the disputes are led by the Scottish leadership of the union and repeatedly supported by rank and file membership in legal ballots.\u00a0 In fact the RMT is one of the few unions in Britain that actually supports the core SNP policy of Scottish Independence and the union called for a vote ‘Yes’ in the 2014 referendum.\u00a0 The RMT was also disaffiliated by the Labour Party in 2004 after its Scottish section agreed to support and affiliate to the Scottish Socialist Party, a pro independence party standing against Scottish Labour.<\/p>\n

A key issue in the framing of the Scottish government’s anti-union response to the current dispute will be the attitude taken by the SNP’s recent junior governmental partner, the Scottish Green Party.\u00a0 The Scottish Green Party currently support the SNP government in parliament and have two junior governmental ministers including part of the Transport brief.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Green Party Trade Union Group immediately issued a statement saying:<\/p>\n

“Abellio and Serco have let the railways down. Their intransigence has cost Scotland most Sunday services and now travel during COP26. As lay members and trade unionists we support the RMT, a shining example of leverage, and urge the employers to make a genuine worthy offer.”\u00a0 \u00a0Scottish Green Party Trade Union Group<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This statement has been retweeted<\/a> by ecosocialist Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman, who had also issued a statement after the SNP attacked the ‘London-based’ RMT with the single word “Solidarity!” in support of the RMT action.<\/p>\n

Friends of the Earth Scotland<\/a>, one of the main environment organisations backing the COP26 Coalition<\/a> demonstrations and events in Glasgow during the COP<\/a> also tweeted solidarity<\/a> with the latest workers’ actions, demonstrating the importance of solidarity between the union and environmental movements built in the recent period.<\/p>\n

Solidarity with workers who are taking action to defend their jobs & conditions @GMBGlasgowCC<\/a> @RMTunion<\/a> @UniteScotland<\/a>

Responding to the climate crisis means we must create decent green jobs but we must also stand alongside those already doing these vital roles.
\u270a#COP26<\/a><\/p>— Friends of the Earth Scotland \ud83c\udf0e (@FoEScot) October 14, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>