10th anniversary of nursery nurse victory
| |
| Carol Ball, then chair
of the UNISON Scotland nursery nurse working group,
speaks to the media in 2004 |
It is 10 years since nursery nurses in Scotland
returned to work after a year- long dispute culminating
in up to 13 weeks of all out strike. It was the longest
strike in Scotland since the miners’ strike.
It may not be surprising for a women dominated
profession that nursery nurse pay had not been reviewed
for 15 years and they had been waiting 18 months for a
response on their claim.
They had mounted demonstrations, submitted
a 20,000 signature petition to the Scottish Parliament
and lobbied parents, councillors and MSPs. With no progress
their patience ran out and they balloted for action.
In a 64% return over 90% voted to take strike
action and action short of strike action.
Strikes began on 20 May 2003 in Glasgow
and the West and were then co-ordinated across Scotland
in a rolling programme to seek a national settlement that
would address the pitifully low pay and low value councils
afforded these workers.
But more than that, it was also about dedication
to the children they served and a real commitment to the
future of early years care and education delivered by
properly trained and supported professionals.
Demos and events
In 2004, the action culminated in all-out strikes with
some of the most imaginative events ever seen in a dispute
to keep the fight in the public eye.
Glasgow held a candle light demonstration at the City
Chambers and lobbied the First Minister at the SECC. There
were huge rallies in Dundee, Ayr, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Fife held a ‘fancy hat’ march
to Pittencrieff Park. Nursery nurses got into the audience
of the BBC’s Question Time in St Andrews.
Strikers from Fife and the Lothians marched
to cross borders and meet in the middle of the Forth Road
Bridge to show the absurdity of CoSLA’s insistence
on local deals instead of a national settlement.
On the 90th anniversary of Ethel Moorhead’s
force-feeding in Calton jail, nursery nurses dressed as
suffragettes paper-chained themselves to the First Minister’s
residence.
Taking the table to CoSLA
And the one I love most. When CoSLA refused to come to
the table for national negotiations, thousands of nursery
nurses and supporters marched through Edinburgh carrying
the table to CoSLA and setting it up outside the organisation’s
front door.
And when the media attacked them, the nursery
nurses turned up at the door of the Evening News and demanded
the journalists account for themselves! We should maybe
do more of that!
Settlements
But gradually branches started to settle locally and eventually
the strike committee had to give the go ahead for local
settlements.
Among the last to settle were Glasgow, Edinburgh
and Renfrewshire with all branches signing deals by 4
June 2004.
Around the country the strike delivered
thousands of pounds in new gradings and nationally it
also delivered a Scottish Government review of early years.
The action changed the face of early years
work and the importance of the role of nursery nurses
across Scotland.
Website lessons
There were many campaigning lessons learned in the dispute
and one was the first major use of our own union media.
While the union establishment was still
a bit Luddite about the then five year old UNISON Scotland
website, nursery nurses took to it in force and also set
up their own blogs and bulletin boards.
The website shot up in hits and was an ideal
tool for quick rebuttal of misinformation and employer
propaganda and circulating details of events.
See the nursery nurse strike archive on the website.
