Paul Sweeney: The cabinet secretary will be well aware of the wider problems that our national health service faces. Spiralling waiting times, missed targets and, indeed, impending strike action due to low pay have been routinely discussed in the chamber and are common knowledge. Just last week, a whistleblower contacted me to express their grave concerns about the conditions that nurses and patients face...
Paul Sweeney: ...at the same rates at which we tax income is an underutilised and underappreciated tool that we have at our disposal. The demands for pay restraint come at a time when railway workers are taking strike action for better pay, terms and conditions. I put on record my unequivocal and complete solidarity with them, because workers have been ripped off for too long. Having been blamed for the...
Paul Sweeney: 7. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to Glasgow City Council cleansing workers taking strike action from 1 November and throughout COP26 due to low pay. (S6F-00412)
Paul Sweeney: As a member of the GMB trade union, I think that Glasgow City Council threatening to union bust by using anti-trade union laws and busing in blackleg private contractors to try to break the strike is disgraceful and a paltry short-term fix to this long-running dispute. If the First Minister agrees with that position, will she please intervene and provide the leadership that has sorely been...
Paul Sweeney: On a point of order, Presiding Officer. The First Minister mentioned that strike-breaking activity took place in 2009. For the record, no such strike-breaking action took place, and the statement that the Glasgow City Council issued to that effect is inaccurate. I would be happy for the chair to confirm that that is the case.
Paul Sweeney: ...ScotRail for locking its workers out of their depots. He responded by suggesting that I am incapable of being impartial because I am a member of a trade union. We also have cleansing workers on strike in Glasgow during COP26, over a pay dispute with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities; the minority SNP administration in Glasgow tried to use Tory anti-trade union legislation to...
Paul Sweeney: To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to resolve the on-going pay dispute between ScotRail and railway workers, in light of the announcement of strike action during COP26.
Paul Sweeney: ...accreditation or training to operate. That comes against the backdrop of the on-going pay dispute, which the minister referred to. As a result, Unite trade union members have overwhelmingly backed strike action in October and November, including dates during COP26. That means that three days of strike action will take place on Scotland’s railways during the most important climate...
Paul Sweeney: ...than 18 months, the Government has steadfastly refused to engage meaningfully with the pay dispute. Workers’ morale is at an all-time low, and they have been left with no option but to vote for strike action. It is not a bolt from the blue or a malicious act; it is the result of sustained unacceptable behaviour by the employer. We face the prospect of Scotland being an international...
Paul Sweeney: ...me get through those difficult periods. If I had a dispute with my bosses or another issue, the officials were very helpful. I did not know when I would need them—when a bit of bad luck could strike. It is critical that people understand why trade union membership is so important.
Paul Sweeney: It is a great pleasure to speak in this debate led by the hon. Member for Witney (Robert Courts), who gave an excellent introduction. He set out the history of carrier strike capability in the UK with aplomb, and spoke highly of our capability and future opportunity, which was fantastic. [Sir Graham Brady in the Chair] I share the sentiments of my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent...
Paul Sweeney: ...we can get a standardised, basic ship type for each type of ship needed for the Royal Navy, we can drive efficiency into the programmes, get more hulls into the water, and build a rigorous, carrier strike battle group around the Queen Elizabeth class, which would allow us to get the bulk back into the Royal Navy. I have spoken to the Royal Navy, which says it has 19 escorts, but it needs...
Paul Sweeney: ...a Member of Parliament, I have been shocked at the level of the hostile environment as it manifests itself in my constituency. Just two weeks ago, the Kamil family in my constituency went on hunger strike outside the Home Office in Glasgow, having been kept in limbo for 18 years, waiting for their asylum application to be assessed. They are Iraqi-Kurdish refugees. How on earth was this...
Paul Sweeney: ...Carntyne in my constituency between the wars. Heroines such as Mary Barbour led the struggle against rapacious landlordism during the first world war; she led the women of the city in the 1915 rent strike that ultimately forced this House to legislate to control rents for the duration of the war. I am delighted that my predecessor Maria Fyfe, who represented Glasgow Maryhill for so many...