Split Personality
Will the real trade union movement please stand up?
The reason I'm so confused - is that two very different sides of the trade union movement have been to the fore in recent weeks.
Last week the PCS (civil service) union was campaigning about the withdrawal of coast guard services in the west of Scotland.
The key message from the union was that this would cost lives - or at least risk lives - with coast guard cover still being provided - but from a different location in Belfast and not on the Clyde.
Yet at the same time amubulance unions were voting down a proposal change rest breaks policy - aimed at improving the response times and saving lives.
But the GMB, Unison and Unite have all rejected a peace formula from the Scottish Ambulance Service - without saying what their members really want.
So are the unions in the ambulance service trying to save lives - or risk lives - and how does this square with the attitude of the PCS and the coast guard service?
Surely the two things cannot both be right - at the same time.
Come to think of it - what does that mean for any future industrial action in the NHS - over public sector pension reforms.
Because no matter how hard they try - the trade unions can't have it both ways.
The reason I'm so confused - is that two very different sides of the trade union movement have been to the fore in recent weeks.
Last week the PCS (civil service) union was campaigning about the withdrawal of coast guard services in the west of Scotland.
The key message from the union was that this would cost lives - or at least risk lives - with coast guard cover still being provided - but from a different location in Belfast and not on the Clyde.
Yet at the same time amubulance unions were voting down a proposal change rest breaks policy - aimed at improving the response times and saving lives.
But the GMB, Unison and Unite have all rejected a peace formula from the Scottish Ambulance Service - without saying what their members really want.
So are the unions in the ambulance service trying to save lives - or risk lives - and how does this square with the attitude of the PCS and the coast guard service?
Surely the two things cannot both be right - at the same time.
Come to think of it - what does that mean for any future industrial action in the NHS - over public sector pension reforms.
Because no matter how hard they try - the trade unions can't have it both ways.
