Empty Union Rhetoric

The unions are coming under pressure to say something meaningful - about the public spending cuts coming down the track.

So far, they resisted saying anything about the government's proposal to implement a public sector pay freeze - but only for workers earning above £21,000 a year.

The significance of £21,000 a year is that it would help to protect the lowest paid workers - two thirds of whom are women - in the council sector.

The government's announcement comes - of course - on the back of a complete pay freeze for all council employees - which has already been announced by the council employers - via COSLA.

So a relaxation of this policy - funded by the Scottish government - would be a big deal for the lower paid.

Yet the unions say nothing - other than to put forward ridiculous 'pie-in the sky' alternatives - that they know will never get off the ground - because they are not being made seriously.

The only proposal put forward by the unions - so far - is that the Scottish government should re-open all the PPP/PFI contracts signed in recent years - as a way of making potentially 'pain free' savings.

But this is exactly what the coalition government at Westminster did in relation to the out of control defence budget - only to find that the cost of ending or renegotiating contracts for two new aircraft carriers - was prohibitively expensive.

In fact it would have cost more to cancel the two new aircraft carriers - than the costs of finishing the building project (£5.2 billion and rising) - thanks to the way contracts were drawn up by the last Labour government.

And no doubt it would be the same in the case of PPP/PFI contracts - most of which were put in place by the last Labour-led administration in the Scottish Parliament.

In other words the unions bright idea for alternative 'pain free' savings - is a complete non-starter - and about as much help as saying Scotland should start exporting tea to China - as a way of solving the country's economic woes.

Time for the unions to wake up and show some leadership - on behalf of their members.

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