The late trade unionist Jimmy Reid was a unique character in our national politics.
He was a radical who enjoyed the admiration of supporters and opponents alike, a truth underlined by the fact both Gordon Brown and Alex Salmond attended his funeral in 2010.
Mr Reid – who moved from the Communist Party to Labour before joining the SNP – became an internationally respected figure as one of the leaders of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in of 1971-72.
His powerful speech to workers lingers in the memory of anyone who has heard it.
‘There will be no hooliganism,’ Mr Reid told union members, ‘there will be no vandalism, there will be no bevvying, because the world is watching us and it is our responsibility to conduct ourselves with responsibility and with dignity and with maturity.’
It was always a pleasure in the foreign country of the past to bump into Mr Reid – who remained a supporter of independence until the age of 78 – at a political conference.
He was erudite, thoughtful and very funny. It was easy to see how he charmed TV viewers in the 1970s when, appearing on Michael Parkinson’s chat show, he challenged the anti-union views of the actor Kenneth Williams.
In his heyday, Mr Reid fought the biggest possible fights to protect the livelihoods of thousands of workers. He and his colleagues brought about real change, forcing Ted Heath’s Conservative government to invest millions in the Upper Clyde yard.
The late trade unionist Jimmy Reid won admiration from across the political spectrum
There aren’t many Jimmy Reids left these days.
In trade union news this week, Unite breathlessly announced its latest victory.
In a statement marked ‘Breaking’, Unite’s hospitality branch announced that management at Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) had agreed to ‘cut ties’ with soft drinks giant Coca-Cola. Until Monday.
Unite’s statement explained that the cinema would not sell Coke for the duration of the Glasgow Film Festival, which closes on Sunday evening. The bar will then sell its remaining Coca-Cola and, once that’s gone, will begin stocking an ‘ethically sourced alternative’.
This move, you will be entirely unsurprised to learn, is intended to encourage others to ‘take a stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza’.
Doubtless, the people of Gaza will be pleased to learn that a small group of people in Glasgow are not drinking Coke while watching a digitally remastered version of Federico Fellini’s 1963 masterpiece 8½ (it’s not bad but it lacks car chases, if you ask me).
Of course, the deal struck between the GFT and Unite will change precisely nothing, apart from meaning the sale of, in my unshakeable view, inferior cola in the bar.
Were I in the mood to be kind, I’d accuse the union officials involved in securing this great ‘victory’ of being naive. I am, however, in the mood to be honest and I’m afraid all I see is narcissistic virtue signalling.
For a start, there’s the laughably portentous language Unite used – ‘cut ties with’ – as if this was some significant breakdown in relations between two big players rather than a decision not to buy any more Coke from the cash and carry because, erm… Zionism?
But more importantly, this case is illustrative of a crisis in the trades union movement, where many key figures seem to have forgotten their responsibility to workers.
Doubtless, the distress the staff at the GFT felt at having to serve Coca-Cola to cinema-goers was genuine; the struggle, as the kids say, is real. But it should also have been ignored.
The hospitality business is one of the toughest there is. Most staff in the industry work very long hours for relatively low wages and I am entirely unconvinced that the time of their union representatives was best used fighting over which soft drink a cinema might be permitted to sell.
Right now, unions are getting as much attention for the cases they won’t touch as they are for those they back.
While Unite officials felt it was essential for the good of their members for them not to have to sell Coca-Cola, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has turned its back on clear-cut cases where their members needed help.
Take Sandie Peggie, for example, the nurse currently claiming discrimination and harassment against NHS Fife and Dr Beth Upton, a trans woman, after she was suspended for complaining she shouldn’t have to share a changing room with the trans medic.
This, you might have thought, was something the RCN would be all over.
Instead, Ms Peggie, a dedicated professional with 30 years of service, was abandoned by her union.
It was a shameful decision that shows that ideology trumps the rights of workers so far as the RCN is concerned.
The nursing union also left nurses in the County Durham town of Darlington high and dry.
A total of 27 nurses signed a letter to NHS managers complaining about a decision to allow trans woman Rose Henderson to share their changing room.
Not only did both the RCN and Unison fail to back the nurses, the response from on high in County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust was that they should ‘broaden their mindset’.
The nurses in that ongoing case have now formed the Darlington Nurses Union, which Sandie Peggie has joined.
How did unions get themselves into a place where they’ll prioritise the need to remove Coca-Cola from a bar but refuse to support members whose sex-based rights are being trampled on?
They took the same route as political parties of the ‘progressive’ Left. They attached themselves, then fully committed, to causes which are barely relevant to most people.
Trade unionists of Jimmy Reid’s era were of the people they represented.
Those men and women, whether you agreed with their objectives or not, were fully committed to the folk they represented.
Their solidarity was beyond question.
Now, as is the case in politics, the trades union movement is dominated by overgrown student debaters who’ve spent next to no time in the real world between graduating and campaigning.
The shop stewards who ‘won’ the battle against Coke in the GFT and those who abandoned Sandie Peggie and her colleagues in Darlington have lost touch completely with the priorities of those they represent.
A worker in need of help in the 1970s could look to trade unionists like Jimmy Reid and know they had clever, energetic and decent people on their side.
A worker in need of help today had better make sure they share the approved
personal opinions of their union shop steward – or else they can expect to be on their own.
