(Friday 15 May 2009)
Fighting for fairness
Last week, the Scottish Living Wage Campaign awarded its first ever Living Wage Employer Award to Glasgow City Council at a ceremony in the city's Dalmarnock area.
The reason for the award was because Glasgow has increased the wages of all low-paid staff up to the Scottish living wage level of at least £7 an hour - as promised in March by council leader Steven Purcell at the Labour Party conference in Perth.
The Scottish Living Wage Campaign, led by the Poverty Alliance, the Scottish TUC, Faith in Community Scotland and UNISON Scotland, is also calling for the Commonwealth Games due to be held in Glasgow in 2014 to be made a "living wage games," like the 2012 Olympics in London will be.
You can see a short film called What Scotland's Living Wage Campaign Means For Dalmarnock online at UNISON Scotland's YouTube channel.
The film tells the story of the Glaswegian community of Dalmarnock, where the Commonwealth Games will be located, and relates its experience of low pay, though the words of local activists.
The people of Dalmarnock don't just want a shiny Commonwealth Games to be held in 2014. They see themselves as owners of their own future and want a legacy of decent jobs at good wages, better housing and an end to the poverty which has so long blighted their community and their city.
Anti-poverty campaigners and unions will also be working to ensure that a living wage is paid to the increasing number of workers employed by the "arm's length bodies" which the city council has been busy creating from its direct labour force.
Meanwhile, Steven Purcell's colleague Glasgow City treasurer Gordon Matheson has called for a "public-sector pay freeze."
You have to ask yourself what planet the Labour councillor is on if he thinks that the middle of a massive recession is a good time to propose an attack on the wages of his council's workers.
Lesser of the two evils?
The Scottish Parliament celebrated its 10th birthday last week, just as its elder sibling plunged deep into the mire of the expenses and second homes row.
There's plenty of reasons to be cheerful about our Scottish Parliament. One of them is that it is now a damn sight less sleazy than Westminster.
But that was not always the case.
We have seen our share of scandal over expenses north of the border.
Indeed, first minister Henry McLeish resigned in 2001 from his post over what he described as "a muddle, not a fiddle" in the funding of his constituency party office.
Tory leader David McLetchie had to walk the plank four years later after Freedom of Information laws allowed his taxi receipts to be held up to scrutiny and found wanting.
And most recently, Labour leader Wendy Alexander's short reign came to an end following some problems over the funding of her campaign to reach the top.
The expenses rules imported from Westminster were fatally exposed during the McLetchie taxi affair.
The action taken by the Scottish Information Commissioner and the parliament led to all MSP expense claims being posted online for everyone to see. And Scottish democracy is healthier for that.
Now, not only are all members of the Scottish Parliament obliged to present every single receipt for everything they claim - pretty much as you or I would for any expense claims we made at work - they are also open to scrutiny.
Also, the use of the Edinburgh accommodation allowance to pay mortgage interest - within the existing rules, of course - has been exposed in the media as a means for certain MSPs to profit from property speculation at the expense of the taxpayer. This loophole will be closed off from 2011, on the recommendation of an independent inquiry.
The fact that the MPs in Westminster have devised a system where their expenses and second home allowances are hidden means that they have something to hide.
Let's have it all out in the open and stop using these dodgy perks as a top-up for salary. MPs don't need more salary. At nearly £65,000 a year, our Westminster representatives are already more expensive than our Holyrood members.
An MSP's salary is set at 87.5 per cent of an MP's, which means that the Edinburgh parliamentarian has to struggle by on a little under £57,000.
It certainly puts the campaign for a £7 living wage into perspective.
Cycling around half the world for Cuba
Word reaches me of an intriguing world film premiere which is being held this evening in Fauldhouse Miners Welfare, West Lothian.
Yes, you read that correctly. That is the venue for the launch of the documentary film Half The World Away (or from Addiewell to Havana via Fauldhouse).
The film documents the progress of three Scottish participants during the 2008 Cuba Cycle challenge.
West Lothian Labour Councillor Neil Findlay, and his friends Tommy Kane and Alan Brown, cycled 350km in five days, took part in educational and humanitarian projects, and presented musical instruments and equipment to a school for visually impaired children in Havana.
Tommy, from the village of Addiewell, is a PhD student in geography at Strathclyde University.
He says: "We've finished our film of our time in Cuba last year doing the cycle challenge.
"It has turned out really not too bad despite us being complete amateurs. We employed an editor who has polished it beyond anything we thought possible."
The bold Cuba campaigners and DIY film directors are having a glitzy cheese and wine reception before their movie premiere and a celebration disco afterwards.
I think this is a great initiative and hope that they will make the film available for others, maybe via the Scottish Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
If you want more information on the film or the premiere event, contact Councillor Neil Findlay at neil.findlay@westlothian.gov.uk
Subscribe to the Morning Star online
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment