AS JOHN SWINNEY addressed the annual congress of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association on Thursday, he was no doubt relieved that a bitter pay dispute between ministers and the teaching profession was over. 

True, the SSTA had accepted an earlier pay offer than the significant settlement the Education Institute of Scotland fought on for — but the initial unity of the teaching unions made for key leverage in the fight.

Swinney, who holds the education brief as well as being deputy first minister, reportedly spoke of the government working in a spirit of “collaboration and empowerment.” 

That’s fair enough when you’re speaking to a group of educators to whose demands for fair pay you’ve acquiesced.

But another substantial section of the profession is still fighting. EIS’s Further Education Lecturers Association took two further days of strike action this week in a parallel pay dispute which so far shows no signs of concluding. 

That’s in spite of the union’s best efforts, with EIS leader Larry Flanagan calling yesterday for a further round of negotiations with umbrella body Colleges Scotland.

When asked to give the colleges a kick up the backside at First Minister’s Questions this week, Nicola Sturgeon retorted: “It always amazes me the number of times that Labour members — proud trade unionists — get up in this chamber and ask me to intervene in national bargaining between employers and trade unions.” 

She said it was “deeply disappointing” that talks had not brought about a settlement, and appealed “to both sides to get round and stay round the table in order to resolve the issue.”

Her further education minister Richard Lochhead tweeted that the “strikes by college lecturers are very disappointing given how close both sides were to a deal in recent days.” 

He went on to retweet a comment from TES journalist Julia Belgutay saying it was “right for government to stay out of this one.”

Yes, colleges have a degree of autonomy — and technically it is Colleges Scotland at the table for national negotiations. 

But these are still state institutions funded from the public purse. Passing the buck will not suffice. But the attempts of SNP ministers to do so also demonstrates the party will always struggle to adopt more than a veneer of pro-worker rhetoric. 

At best, as seen in Sturgeon’s comment, the party sees itself as a neutral arbiter between supposedly equal camps of employers and workers. 

At worst, as seen in Lochhead’s tweet, the SNP sees unions not as the basis of working-class organisation, but as a pesky inconvenience to a separate public — better known these days as “consumers.”