‘ Tragic’ bid to demonise striking workers is not helping anyone
THE year 2023 is starting just as 2022 ended: with a raft of strikes and strike ballots as public sector workers continue their disputes with employers.
Trains are affected this week as the RMT dispute with Network Rail rolls on.
Teachers are striking next week and nurses are preparing for strike action in the coming months.
As well as the battle around the negotiating table, there is another agenda around trying to influence public opinion.
With each strike, there is a muddying of the waters, and it appears to be deliberate and intended to question and undermine public support for the workers taking action.
With the train strikes, we hear the travelling public is being ‘ held to ransom’ and that the economy is being damaged beyond repair.
One restaurateur interviewed on the BBC went as far as to say, all whilst laughing, that they ( workers on strike) should all be sacked.
I can only assume he doesn’t want rail, teaching or nursing staff as his customers.
Some have even tried to give today the label “tragic Thursday” in an obvious attempt to lament strikes and demonise those exercising their right to take industrial action.
The attempt itself is what is tragic.
Questions are often put to compare the wages of those taking action with others who earn less, to suggest they are earning ‘ good money’ and should be grateful.
When the nurses announced strike action, their commitment to patients was called into question.
In all of this, there is little attention paid to what the disputes are actually about.
So, let’s take a look at each. The train strikes are probably the most complicated. With so many operating companies sand different unions representing different jobs.
In Scotland, ScotRail agreed a settlement with RMT – which represents most train and station staff – of between 7% and 9%. The TSSA also represents many workers.
The RMT dispute is with Network Rail which affects station staff, signals and track maintenance.
RMT says while the dispute is about pay, it is also about planned cuts to maintenance schedules which it says would put the travelling public at risk.
RMT has rejected an offer of 9% spread over two years.
Schools will be closed next week as teachers take action.
Teachers’ unions have rejected the 5% differentiated offer from Cosla.
Teachers on lower pay would get more than those on higher scales.
Unions say their pay has been cut “in real terms” by 25% since 2008 as a result of inflation.
An initial offer of 2% was rejected and teachers are asking for 10%.
A newly qualified teacher earns £ 28,113 and the incremental pay scales rise to £ 42,336 after point 5.
Cosla says the offer is
“fair, affordable and recognises that the cost of living crisis is the priority, with higher increases for staff on lower pay points. This is in line with the offers made to all other parts of the public sector”. Nurses are also preparing for a rare
strike over pay.
The Scottish Government is planning to impose its pay offer on nursing staff after Humza Yousaf, the health secretary, said there is no more money.
The offer means nurses on between Band 5 and Band 8A would get pay increases of between £ 2,450 and £ 2,751, an improved offer from the previous, across- theboard £ 2,205 pay uplift.
Nurses, however, say that more is needed to recognise the role, the cost of living crisis and address a recruitment and retention crisis in nursing.
The RCN said: “The pay offer is not what is needed to recognise our members’ safety critical role, stop nursing staff leaving the profession or attract the nurses of the future.”
While those seeking to undermine strikes by claiming nurses are putting people at risk, the RCN said: “The safety of patients and of our members is paramount and we will be working hard to ensure that while any strike action is disruptive, it does not put patients or our members at risk.”
It has to be remembered that the asks, just like the opening offers, are negotiating tactics.
If, for example, teachers’ demand for 10% is too big an ask, then so too, the 2% offered by the councils was too low.
The battle being played out in the media, especially the longer the strikes continue, is about public support and sympathy.
What gets lost is the facts of each dispute.
The facts include these are disputes about our public services and how we pay those who deliver them on the ground face- to- face.
People getting us from A to B, safely.
People who teach the nation’s children to read and write and help to equip them for adult life.
People who treat us when we are ill, from the cradle to the grave.
It is in all our interests that a fair settlement is reached.
Some have even tried to give today the label ‘ tragic Thursday’