Strike action targeting schools in John Swinney’s Perthshire North constituency will prove difficult for the First Minister to handle.
Few will disagree that local government is struggling and many are facing a set of very difficult choices in the months and years ahead unless significant investments flows from Holyrood.
All the while, workloads for frontline staff in our schools isn’t just increasing – it’s also becoming harder and more complex.
We don’t need to look far to find evidence of teachers and others reporting concerning rates of violence and aggression.
School strike understandable
With this in mind it is understandable why Unison has rejected a pay offer which would give its members a less generous pay-deal than other public sector workers.
The union represents some of the lowest paid council staff. In our schools this includes cleaners and caretakers as well as kitchen staff and teaching assistants.
While two other unions representing the same group have accepted a pay increase of 3.6%, Unison walked away from the deal after other groups of workers were awarded 5% or more.
The union’s decision to target the communities represented by the First Minister is a less-common tactic.
Parents will feel aggrieved
Parents in Perthshire North will rightly feel aggrieved. After so much disruption the children’s schooling in recent years, further closures will hit hard.
They will understandably feel their children are unfairly being forced to miss out on time in school due to the misfortune of living in the area represented by Mr Swinney.
And with the strikes timed to coincide with the end of the October holidays, it will mean some kids could be out of the classroom for a month.
But sources in Unison are resolute. They are sure this is the right action for their members, many of whom, they point out, will have children who will be similarly impacted.
“This will bring the message home to John Swinney. He needs to find a solution to this dispute,” one insider said on Wednesday.
Local branch secretary Stuart Hope said it is designed to strengthen this point: “The Scottish Government needs to understand that council staff need more than platitudes.
“Ministers must tackle the severe decline in local government funding and start to value councils and their dedicated workforce as they do other areas of public services.
“John Swinney is invited to join one of the picket lines to hear how undervalued council staff in his constituency feel.”
‘When you’re explaining, you’re losing’
For Mr Swinney’s part, he told The Courier there is “no justification” for the strike, with the pay deal of offer delivering what Unison had originally asked for.
But that old maxim coined by Ronald Reagan remains true: “When you’re explaining, you’re losing.”
I’ve written before that even at the top of politics, it’s often the things are perceived in their home constituency that hits home hardest for members of the government.
The strike action will be hard, if not impossible, for Mr Swinney to juggle.
Continued disruption could spell trouble for John Swinney
The complaints from Unison, and their highlighting of the years of underinvestment in local government, are legitimate.
As the SNP first minister and former finance chief, Mr Swinney will know that the trade unions and his political opponents will be able to make trouble.
Despite his defence for the lack of a deal to resolve the dispute, he will very quickly hear from furious parents over this issue. They are unlikely to be placated.
And with the Scottish Parliament elections fast approaching, he will be keen to understand exactly how this goes down in his own backyard.
If he government is unable to resolve the dispute, Perthshire North could well face further school closures due to strikes later in the year and into 2025.
The concern at the top of the SNP will be whether voters conclude that the downsides outweigh the benefits of being represented by the first minister.
Conversation