5,000 nursery nurses have been on all-out strike across Scotland since 1 March. Having had no pay review for 16 years, these predominantly women workers have gone into battle challenging poverty pay conditions. The nurses have a starting wage of £10,000 per year, reaching £13,800 after 10 years’ service. They are fighting for a wage of £18,000 – and that is still £7,000 less than the average male wage.
In the Scottish parliament, Scottish Socialist Party MSPs put forward a motion calling for support for the nurses. Speaking to it, one of the SSP MSPs, Caroline Leckie, said ‘I appeal to many people in this chamber who have a trade union history and support…all members know full well the duty of solidarity.’ 70 Labour MSPs demonstrated their sense of solidarity by voting down the motion; only one Labour MSP supported it. Labour not only is the largest party in the Scottish Parliament, it runs the majority of local councils and has stuffed the employer’s organisation – the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities – with its supporters. Labour supports poverty pay for nurses.
The campaign in support of the nurses needs to take on the Labour Party directly – it cannot be limited to the basics of organising picket lines and fund raising. ‘Go out to the people’ was the slogan that FRFI adopted during the historic miners’ strike. That same principle applies now to building support for the nursery nurses – and this means openly and directly challenging Labour and its role as a disgraceful employer. Wherever they are, socialists must not duck this or else they will undermine the cause of the nurses.
Michael MacGregor
FRFI 178 April / May 2004
