IT remains to be seen how effective a union’s target of John Swinney's constituency will be in achieving their aims, according to experts.
Unison members staged a protest outside the First Minister’s constituency office in Blairgowrie, Perthshire last week as part of strike action targeting the area he represents.
The union was the only one of three to reject an offer which gives non-teaching school staff a pay rise of 67p per hour or 3.6%, whichever is higher.
GMB and Unite have both accepted the offer and the deal was implemented for workers.
The strike action from Unison is expected to last for two weeks.
Dr Nick McKerrell, senior law lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, believes the members striking are echoing successes of the past in targeting a government minister’s area.
“Last year, the EIS, as part of their teachers’ pay campaign, had strikes in the seats of leading members of the SNP Government, including John Swinney and – because of the Bute House Agreement in place at the time – the Scottish Greens,” he said.
“This in itself echoed the EIS strikes in the 1980s, in the Thatcher era, where they targeted areas with Scottish Conservative MPs.
“How successful it will be given the big financial picture remains to be seen but it has kept the debate on public sector pay alive.”
While Unison’s decision to target Perth and Kinross was a tactical one, it was also one that had to act within the limits of current employment law.
Dr McKerrell continued: “The 2016 laws introduced by the Cameron conservative government introduced minimum thresholds of 50% for union members voting in strike ballots.
“To overcome this hurdle, many unions have turned to ballots in local smaller areas where they may be more likely to get that turnout.
“In the ballot for their school members, Unison achieved this in only four Scottish council areas – including Perth and Kinross.
“So, they can have a very focused campaign in this one area as they have the mandate to do this.”
The goal of Unison’s campaign is to get a better pay deal for council workers, with classroom assistants and janitors walking out.
Some schools have started to open or partially open, but many remain closed.
Professor Gregor Gall, a research associate for the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow, believes this would have to be a first step in a larger strategy to be effective.
He said: “For the tactic of targeting the schools in the constituency of the First Minister to be worthwhile, the action must further raise awareness among the public such that there is empathy and sympathy rather than hostility – but also do two other things.
“The first is to be a building block to wider action by other Unison members – either in all the other 31 councils or certainly where Unison has a ballot mandate for action, as targeting Swinney is not enough.
“This will be essential as action in the four other councils where there are mandates will not develop enough leverage by dint of only being four and only East Renfrewshire being a sizeable council and the one in the central belt.
“The second is that the leverage generated by wider action needs to be contextualised to understand its potential potency.
“In 2022, it was refuse workers that had an immediate and obvious impact, with a threat that did not need to be carried out subsequently by school support staff.
“In order for the school support to be the vanguard – as the refuse workers were in 2022 – they will need a massive amount of work by Unison Scotland to get the mandates and use them well.
“This time around, compared to 2022, inflation has eased somewhat, and Scottish Government finances are in an even more perilous state, so Unison will have to work out strategically where the Scottish Government is weakest.
“This might start with the councils where other significant and appropriate cabinet members and ministers have their seats –including Jenny Gilruth, Ivan McKee, Shona Robison, and Kate Forbes.”
Swinney has stated he is “deeply disappointed” with the targeted action taken, feeling that the strikes “unfairly targeted the parents and pupils of Perthshire North”.
The Scottish Government and councils body Cosla have also stated that no more money is available for further pay deals this year.
