Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): It is right and fitting to debate such important issues in the chamber this morning. We have just debated pensioner poverty and the scandal of winter cold-related deaths. We will now debate the council tax and the just case of Scotland's nursery nurses, about which my colleagues Frances Curran and Carolyn Leckie will say more. I simply say that it is a fact of life that the majority of poor pensioners are women. That is because women have been low paid for longer in their lives. Scotland's nursery nurse work force predominantly consists of women. They are fighting the scandal of low pay and deserve 100 per cent support from the people of Scotland.

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP):
"I appeal to the many people in the chamber who have trade union history and support and to those who shout about pay discrimination and the way in which women are undervalued.
Even if the full claim was won, nursery nurses would still be a full £7,000 a year behind the average male wage. The claim is just. All members know fine well the duty of solidarity.
They know that if there is no national settlement to the dispute while the nursery nurses are all on strike, they will be consigned to low and unequal pay for a very long time?they know what a strike means.
A review is double-speak for defeat. I urge members to vote for substance, not empty calories. I urge them to ask how the nursery nurses would want them to vote. They know what the issue is and they know how they would vote: they would vote for the SSP motion, unamended. We must not let them down. Victory to the nursery nurses!"

Did your MSP vote for the nursery nurses ?
Only 1 Labour MSP, Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok), voted in support of the Nursery Nurses.
3 others abstained; Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East), Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) and Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston).
The Full New Labour - Lib Dem coalition vote against the nursery nurses.

The Presiding Officer: The result of the division is: For 70, Against 44, Abstentions 3
Amendment agreed to.
Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): Sell-out!
The Presiding Officer: Order. I do not welcome comments during decision time.

The day began with a visit by SSP MSP's to nursery nurses on an Edinburgh picket



"They chanted nursery rhymes for more than two hours. They blew whistles and horns. They banged tambourines.
"This was the biggest and noisiest demonstration of the parliamentary year so far. "
John Knox, BBC Scotland political correspondent
BBC News Online Report, 12/03/04



Frances Curran (West of Scotland) (SSP): I welcome all the nursery nurses who are in the Parliament today and those who are lobbying outside at the moment. [Applause.] We are allowed to clap.
The Deputy Presiding Officer: You are.
Frances Curran: Some of us have no problem with applause from the balconies.



Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): I welcome all sister members of Unison who are in the public gallery. In particular, I welcome Joan and all the nursery nurses from North Lanarkshire, as well as all the special needs nursery nurses who are present. Like Lord James Douglas-Hamilton, I recognise the special job that they do. That is why they deserve more pay, which should be paid on a national basis. That is the reason why they are on strike.
It is an absolute disgrace that, after 16 years without a review, 10 months of intermittent strike action and two weeks of all-out strike, nursery nurses still do not have decent national pay for a highly skilled, professional, national job.



Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): Teachers, the police and nurses all have national pay for doing national jobs, albeit in different schools, police stations and hospitals. Councillors even want national pay for themselves. When Pat Watters gave evidence to the Local Government and Transport Committee to demand £25,000 a year for councillors, he was asked whether councillors in Glasgow and Edinburgh perhaps did a different job from councillors in Inverness and elsewhere. "Absolutely not," he said, "we need national pay." If national pay is good enough for Pat Watters, it is good enough for the nursery nurses.
And what about MSPs? We are all on national pay, yet we represent different local employers, who are the voters. If we were to put our pay out to local negotiations in our constituencies, how much would Bill Aitken or Euan Robson receive?


MSP's Block Wage Deal on Nursery's
Daily Record

HUNDREDS of striking nursery nurses lobbied MSPs yesterday but had their hopes of a national pay deal dashed.
Nurses from all over Scotland demonstrated outside the parliament from early in the morning.
But their appeals failed when MSPs voted against a motion calling for a national deal.
About 100 striking nurses cheered and clapped in the public gallery through the debate, called by the Tommy Sheridan-led Scottish Socialist Party.
SSP MSP Carolyn Leckie said: 'It's an absolute disgrace that nursery nurses after 16 years without a review, 10 months on intermittent strike action and two weeks on all-out strike still do not have a decent national pay rate for a highly skilled, professional, national job.'
She argued that since the parliament and Executive had set national standards for nursery nurses, they deserved a pay deal to match.