It is the boast of Celtic, carried on placards inside and outside the ground, that it is "a club like no other", but it is clear after last Friday's AGM that it is managed by an executive board regrettably like every other, happy to see their own remuneration maintained at a high level while being indifferent to the conditions of working people ("Celtic to pay living wage, but hit out at hijacking by politicians", The Herald, November 22).
When faced with the possibility of paying a "living wage" to its own employees, it was clear that the board's vision of how Celtic should conduct itself was at odds with that of the ordinary shareholders, easily outvoted by corporate interests, and supporters.
Having announced on the material sent to shareholders in advance of the AGM that they opposed the move, they gave in at the last moment, but the subsequent statements left no one in any doubt about their reluctance to line up with moves across the country to end the scandal of what has become known as the working poor. The demand that a fair, or living, wage be paid to employees was hardly burdensome to a club with Celtic's resources. Estimates put the cost to Celtic at between £350,000 and £500,000.
Chief executive Peter Lawwell and the other board members lost the opportunity to display a sense of justice or social responsibility. Do they recall the reasons why the club was founded by Brother Walfrid, whose statue they have erected outside the main stand? That was what could genuinely make Celtic "a club like no other", but that moral heritage risks being squandered by the policies encouraged by the board.
They have a chance to redeem themselves by reversing the other part of the policy announced at the meeting and sign up to the living wages campaign, thereby ensuring their employees are guaranteed a wage that will change in line with inflation and hopes for a decent standard of living. This could apply to individual board members. Brian Wilson MP was re-elected to the board at the AGM. He has been curiously silent on the very issue people would have expected him to be vocal. Would he like to break his silence and tell us where he stands?
Joseph Farrell,
7 Endfield Avenue,
Glasgow.
It would appear that Celtic Football Club's chairman Iain Bankier and chief executive Peter Lawell are both extremely unhappy that some politicians have hijacked the club's name in furtherance of a "living wage" campaign.
Oddly enough, earlier in the year, Celtic expressed no such disquiet when a politician, former club chairman, Baron Reid of Cardowan, appended Celtic's name to an advertisement in the Scottish Catholic Observer promoting "Faith in the Union", a Better Together supporting organisation.
Tom O'Neill
26 Westcliff,
Dumbarton.
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