SCOTTISH actors could set up a breakaway trade union over a bitter dispute over the reorganisation of Equity, it is claimed.
Anger over the proposed restructuring of the UK-wide performing arts union and loss of one long-serving official from its busy Glasgow office is so strong some members have suggested it’s time to establish an independent Scottish alternative.
Decision-makers at its London HQ have told “encyclopaedic” organiser Lorne Boswell he is to be cut as responsibility for Northern Irish operations as they move from Glasgow to the English capital.
Maureen Beattie, the union’s president, says she is “deeply distressed” at the compulsory redundancy move but the Glasgow office is “over-staffed”, having 5% of the union’s membership but using 15% of its resources at a time when it’s carrying a £600,000 deficit. But angry members have started a campaign against the changes, claiming the decision is against their wishes and ignores the complexity of the union’s work in Scotland a time of great uncertainty for the performing arts.