For the second time this week, I marched with mostly women workers, from a Glasgow park to George Square in solidarity with their demand for better pay.
Today, 30,000 teachers, members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) flooded the 1.5 mile route from Kelvingrove Park to George Square. When the march arrived in the Square, much of it was still to leave the park.
This is the biggest single union march and rally in the city since the EIS rally in 1984.
The teachers of Scotland have a big message to their employers, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and to the Scottish Government that they should value teachers – and value education
The teaching unions pay claim of 10% is reasonable after a decade of austerity, service cuts and increasing workloads in schools. Like civil servants, teachers and all public sector workers deserve a real pay rise.
As trade unionists and politicians from Labour, SNP, Lib Dem and Green parties declared at the rally – we value Fair Work and we also value Collective Bargaining.
The teachers have sent a strong signal to the Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney. When a trade union is consulting its membership on a pay offer, it is not fitting in this so-called Fair Work Scotland, to seek to undermine it by writing directly to all teachers. That is a Tory anti-union practice.
We have come to expect union-busting practices d in Trump’s USA. But, even there, teachers have come together to strike and win real pay increases in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona. Because when workers plan to win, threaten and strike together and stick together, they can and do, win.
Scottish teachers have shown today that they are willing to stand up for their rights. They will continue to demand a 10% pay rise, because, they know they are worth it!
We are all Rosa's daughters... 