On a windy, overcast autumn day thousands of low-paid women were out on strike in Glasgow in protest of stalled talks with the local council over the long-running issue of equal pay. The rain was spitting, the cold just seeping through my two-layers, but the atmosphere was one filled with optimism and determination. Hundreds concentrated in Glasgow Green and George Square holding banners and placards lambasting former and current council members, demanding pay and drawing attention to the work women have put into the city.
It all started in 2006 when the-then Labour council brought in the Job Evaluations Scheme which was actually intended to eliminate gender pay inequality. But the scheme built in a three-year protection system for men who lost out on bonuses, softening the blow to their pay packets. Women working in predominantly female jobs such as cleaners and care assistants - Cordia, for example, whose staff look after many older residents throughout Glasgow - were deemed to be of similar value to predominantly male jobs such as refuse collectors.
However, the women were effectively paid less than their male counterparts because of this, causing a large part of the discrepancy. This issue affects around 8,000 employees and some estimates have put the value of the potential equal pay settlement of up to £1 billion which is similar to Glasgow City Council’s entire yearly budget.
In Glasgow Green, one group of women, who work in a nursery in Ruchazie, were not happy with how long it was taking for progress to be made. They said: “Twelve years ago they promised that we would be on par with men doing equal jobs and they have still not got us level with men. We want to be treated equally. The SNP’s handling of it is terrible. We thought they would have done better [than Labour].
“We went out on strike for 14 weeks in 2004 and we believed we were going to get what we wanted. When we went back we got a higher rate but quite a lot of the things we wanted they never gave into. And we are back here again today. At the end of the 14-week strike they told us it was illegal, but they never told us that before it. That was under the Labour government. We’re now under the SNP and we’re no further forward.”
We're now under the SNP and we're no further forward
The women, however, remained determined, saying: “We won’t take no for an answer.”
Margaret McEwan, a cleaner of 18 years experience who works in Glasgow City Chambers, was also out on strike. She said: “This is really important to women in Glasgow. It’s been to the highest court in Scotland and they said we have to get our money back. It’s Glasgow City Council that’s holding it back.”
Linda Brown, a caterer from Cardonald, is doubtful that women will be given all of the money they are owed: “I don’t think we will get it all. They’ve been told to give money out by the courts, but they’re holding onto it; they’re not wanting to do it,” she said.
Brown said she felt that women in her career were undervalued and that the strike sends a message to other employers: “If they don’t pay up we’re not going to put up with it anymore. We are fed up with it. We’ve got a voice now. [We’re here today] to get what we deserve: our money.”
As the march moved from Glasgow Green to all the way up George Square the streets were full of supportive onlookers, cheering on the women and looking impressed by the large turnout. Passers-by shouted in support from their windows as the march sung: “What do we want? Equal pay! When do we want t? Now!”
This is a working-class girl fighting back
As they arrived in George Square 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton played and the crowd combined with another one already in the square to pack the place out with an enthusiasm and cheer that ringed throughout the city centre. A man set off a flare, filling George Square with an orange haze that permeated throughout the street. A number of speakers performed, talking with passion and pride with notable anger in their voices. As one woman put it: “This is a working-class girl fighting back.”
Jennifer McCarey, an area organiser at UNISON’s Glasgow branch spoke about the history of equal pay in Glasgow. She said: “Back in 2004 and 2005 [equal pay] was seen as an issue primarily for manual female workers. Now that has changed and it has become an issue for all female dominated occupational groups. UNISON’s role primarily was that during the pay and grading review that was imposed in 2007, we opposed it. We were not convinced that it delivered pay equality in the city, so we made our feelings known and we walked away.
“When councils brought in the new pay schemes some people’s wages went up, some people’s wages went down. So those workers’ wages that went down, so that they didn’t suffer a great loss, they were offered protection and that meant that the actual earnings wouldn’t be reduced for a period of usually two-to-three years. Over the years your pay will increase and the amount that you’re going to lose will be reduced
“Protection was later found in the courts to be illegal. What they said was: see the women that you just considered to be equal to the men? They should get the protection money as well.”
Thousands of women are owed several thousand, even tens of thousands of pounds in back pay. McCarey doesn’t think this was a conscious act of sexism, but rather an effort to help struggling male workers cope with pay decreases; that it was a poorly constructed system that had unintended consequences for the women who lost out. UNISON decided to take a legal route to challenge the council.
Issues were bubbling up from the bottom. We had members coming to us telling us this isn't fair
“In Glasgow, we decided to challenge the whole pay scheme which was hugely ambitious. We were saying no, your whole pay scheme is potentially discriminatory. We then fought a legal route from 2009 onwards but at the same time within our branch because our members were feeling the effects of unequal pay. They could tell it in their wages; they could see that there was unfairness and disparities. Issues were bubbling from the bottom up. We had members coming to us and telling us this isn’t fair,” she said.
Fairness has been a key point in this issue. Women just want to be treated fairly. For the workers, they see the money as something that is already there’s - they just haven’t received it yet. For the council to give them the money that they have already earned is common sense. But for the council, however, this is one of the largest debts it will have to pay out in its history. It will inevitably affect Glasgow, pulling money and resources from the council at a time when budget cuts have seen Glaswegians £210 a year worse off.
Fairness and pragmatism is something that will no doubt run through the mind of Glasgow City Council Leader Susan Aitken, as well as all the Glasgow councillors. She needs to strike a deal which will satisfy the women who have been wronged at the same time as pleasing 500,000 taxpayers who – especially the poor in Glasgow – are already facing the brunt of austerity.
I contacted several Labour and SNP Glasgow City Council councillors and received either an outright refusal to be interviewed or no reply at all. Many were contacted several times through email and phone. Some of their assistants told me they read the emails. I also contacted the SNP press office but was unable to get an interview with any councillors through that method either.
Between full redistribution of cash already earned by women and not bankrupting the city, Susan Aitken has a tough road ahead of her – not to mention taxpayers and the women who just want the money they earned. Fairness is key. But no matter what the deal it won’t be one where everyone is happy.
It wasn’t just the female workers fighting for equal pay that were there. Hundreds of men and women in support of workers also turned up in large numbers to support their family, friends and colleagues. Some even brought their dogs.
Susan, an American, former child carer living in Glasgow, explained why she was at the march in support of the women. She said: “I was a childcare worker in the US for many years, so I know what they are going through. It’s low status, it’s low pay, it’s very hard work and I’m sad that they’ve been working for 12 years to get this so I wanted to be here in solidarity with them.
“There’s a lot of inequity in this world and they keep saying they don’t have the money or that they will be negotiating, but they just keep stalling.”
Susan expressed her pessimism on the issue but said: “The more we are out on the street the better.
John McMillan, a janitor in Castlemilk, explained men were there for a reason too. He said: We’re here for the money we’re entitled to. [The council] are trying to give us as little money as possible. The equal pay issue for men is that somebody else as the same grade as me who has a different job is paid bonuses, but we don’t get the bonuses. They’ve been doing this for years.”
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