tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92179528694674347642024-03-13T03:47:06.784+00:00There is a Better WayThe blog of the 'There is a Better Way' campaign by STUC staff about policy issues that are, or should be, in the news and guest contributors on issues of social justice. Written from a STUC perspective, contributions will often cover areas where there is yet no settled STUC policy and go into areas in more detail than our formal decisions. We welcome debate and we don’t expect everyone to agree with us, but we will remove any comments that are offensive, irrelevant or otherwise annoy.Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.comBlogger273125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-37840160415145588182017-07-04T15:04:00.001+01:002017-07-04T15:04:57.775+01:00“The functions of the British Transport Police in Scotland will be a devolved matter”<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />That’s what the Smith Commission had to say about the future of railway policing in Scotland. The British Transport Police comes within the purview of the Scottish Parliament.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />The Scottish Government have used their new powers to pass a Railway Policing Bill, with Green support, that will break up the British Transport Police in Scotland and merge its functions into Police Scotland, against the advice of experts, officers and staff. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Against the wishes of the STUC too, expressed in resolutions backed by rail unions and public sector unions alike. <br /><br />There is no reason why the devolution of the British Transport Police should mean the dissolution of the British Transport Police. Breaking up the BTP is a choice. A political choice. It didn’t have to happen. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />In response to the Smith Agreement, the British Transport Police Authority set out a range of options, including alternatives to a merger that would allow us to retain the British Transport Police as a specialist service but with enhanced accountability to the Scottish Parliament. The best of both worlds for railway policing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Yet it is telling that the Scottish Government were only prepared to consult on one option – dismantling the British Transport Police in Scotland. <br /><br />BTP officers and support staff provide a good service. They are public servants in a unique police force – one of the best in the country – with specialist skills and experience in preventing terrorism, protecting transport hubs, managing major incidents and keeping the railways running safely. <br />BTP has been subject to more inspections than any other police service in the country and is consistently found to be efficient, effective and to carry the confidence of the travelling public. <br />Not one of the principal stakeholders involved with the British Transport Police believes that its abolition in Scotland is necessary. Not one would support it. Not the train companies. Not the officers. Not the staff. <br /> <br />When the Parliament’s Justice Committee took evidence on the Bill, the majority of respondents raised substantial concerns about the terms, conditions and pension rights of BTP officers and support staff.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />When the Scottish Parliament voted on that Bill, no settlement had been negotiated and no agreement had been reached. The level of engagement between Ministers and the relevant unions has been dismal. So much for the fair work agenda. So much for partnership. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />In the days before the vote, Nigel Goodband, the Chair of the British Transport Police Federation, personally wrote to the Transport Minister and warned that at a time of heightened security when the terrorist threat is severe, it would be “imprudent” to push ahead with the merger. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />The TSSA say the Bill amounts to a “downgrading” of security of Scotland’s railways. <br /><br />The RMT warned that the railway policing specialism would be diluted, eroding skills and experience built up over decades, and they said the Bill had come at the worst possible time. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Merging the British Transport Police with Police Scotland is wrought with risks. Risks no responsible government should take. Yet the Scottish Government continued regardless. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />There is understandable dejection amongst BTP workers after the Parliament’s decision but we were able to secure one small victory that may prove to be important in years to come. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />Amendments I put forward that would ensure trade union representation on a new Railway Policing Management Forum were accepted and the Scottish Government also agreed to include trade unions and staff associations on a list of statutory consultees. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />This Bill is a bad Bill. It is not a Bill I could possibly support. However, in ensuring trade unions are mentioned on the face of the Bill, we have guaranteed that whatever happens with this merger, workers will have their say in the future of railway policing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /> Neil Bibby MSP</span></b><br />Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-64279669675094249512017-06-23T12:31:00.000+01:002017-06-23T12:38:43.052+01:00A new deal for women in engineering<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Second World War saw an influx of women into male dominated professions such as engineering. So much so, that in 1943 the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU) took the decision to admit women members for the first time and women have continued to consolidate their position within the sector and within their unions ever since. <br /><br />Since that time much has changed in the world of work and the issue of gender inequality and occupational segregation in engineering is now widely recognised. We know now that occupational segregation in STEM fields costs the Scottish economy £170milion each year; we know that 73% of women with qualifications in these fields leave the sector, compared to 49% of men and we know that the Scottish Government forecasts the need for 120,000 more engineers by 2020. <br /><br />Companies are also recognising the benefits of diverse workforces and many are working to create more inclusive cultures. At Equate, we have the good fortune to work with passionate women and men from across the sector who are committed to creating change through flexible-working, taking positive action and challenging structural barriers. <br /><br />Trade Unions continue to have a key role to play in this work. In recent years, Prospect the Union has taken the lead in championing the needs of women looking to return to science and engineering following a career break. Their research in this area, has resulted in the development of returnship programmes that have enabled talented women to step back onto the career ladder. <br /><br />Today is International Women in Engineering Day – a day to celebrate the many achievements of women in engineering and also a day to remember that supporting this agenda is the right thing to do both economically and socially. Without women, Scotland cannot meet its STEM sector targets and if we do not work to overcome occupational segregation in these sectors, then we risk locking women out of the jobs of the future. <br /><br />In order to prevent this, we must all work together. We need engineering employers to take bold action to attract and retain women to and in their organisations. Equally, we need our trade unions to be at the fore front of discussions on gender equality, challenging the status quo and championing change. There is a real opportunity for Unions to lead on these issues, just as Prospect has done, and Equate Scotland looks forward to working with Unions to make this vision for Scotland a reality.<br /><br />Allison Johnstone started her career as a chemical engineer with the oil and gas industry. She now works as Training and Development Manager at Equate Scotland, the national experts on women in STEM fields. She is member of Unison.<br /><br />Photograph found at: <a href="https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/explorefurther/images/ase160/" target="_blank">https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/explorefurther/images/ase160/ </a></span>Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-65443442164370140002017-06-06T11:11:00.002+01:002017-06-06T11:11:59.601+01:00Why auto-enrolment matters to women <div class="s4" style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.2;">
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">Auto-enrolment is a Government initiative designed to encourage workers to save for their retirement. By 2018 all employers must enrol their eligible employees into a workplace pension </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">scheme </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">and the employer</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">s</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> must contribute to it. Employees can opt out if they wish but</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> the reality is</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> very few do.</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> Since its introduction in 2012 over 440,000 workers in Scotland are now saving into a workplace pension as a result of auto-enrolment. </span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">By the time</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> the roll out is</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> complete</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> the majority of workers in Scotland will have access to a workplace pension that will include an employer contribution of at least 3% of salary by April 2019. </span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">The</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">Government</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">review of auto-enrolment is</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> currently taking place </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">however there is no requirement to change anything as a result of this review.</span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">As we are all aware Brexit n</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">eg</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">ot</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">iations </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">will </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">extend </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">well </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">into 2018</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> and beyond</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> taking up </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">much of the</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> UK’s</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> government’s time, </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">however</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> we can’t allow th</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">em to use this as an excuse to </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">stall</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">long term </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">domestic pension policy. </span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">Despite the </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">general consensus that Auto-enrolment has been a success, </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">changes have to be made. </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">It must be made simpler, fairer and open to all. In particular, t</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">he review </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">must </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">address the discrimination against the low paid and bring </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">more women and people on low incomes into auto-enrolment. </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"></span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">A major problem with the current approach is that to be eligible you need to earn at least £10k a year in one job. This excludes many part-time workers who have an income </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">over</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> £10k </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">which</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> comes from multiple jobs.</span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">We need action to </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">change </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">the </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">auto-enrolment eligibility</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> criteria so </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">that more women qualify. By </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">bringing </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"></span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">together</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">low income</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> multiple jobs</span><span class="s3" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">–would allow </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">workers with m</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">ore than on</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">e job to benefit from an employer contribution</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> which they currently do not</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">. </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">At the moment these workers </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">are</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">exempt</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> because their </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">earnings are </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">looked at individually rather than combined and they are considered to be </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">below the</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">£10,000 </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">threshold. </span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">Recent figures show that 60,000 women</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> in the UK</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> would </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">immediately </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">benefit</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">if the threshold changed to allow more than one job to be taken into account</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">. S</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">ince the financial crash there’s been a massive increase in part-time roles</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">, the majority of which are done by women</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> and </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">government policy on</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">pensions </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">must reflect this. </span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">Widening the scope of AE must be at the heart of the review so that more women can benefit from an employer contribution and start saving</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">.</span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">Women already lose out on pensions</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> in </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">so </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">many other ways</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">. </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">O</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">n average their pensions are worth 1/3 less than </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">mens</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> due to lower pay</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">and the earnings threshold on auto-enrolment is </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">yet another contributory factor to the continued widening of the </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">gender </span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">pensions gap.</span></div>
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<span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">We</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> need a</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> pensions</span><span class="s5" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;"> policy that works for everyone</span><span class="s6" style="color: #323133; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; line-height: 12px;">. </span></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-63705121823963003272017-04-26T10:41:00.000+01:002017-04-26T10:41:54.826+01:00Address to Congress by Kezia Dugdale MSP, Leader of the Scottish Labour Party<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Kezia Dugdale MSP</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Leader of the Scottish Labour Party</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">120th STUC Annual Congress</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Let me begin by paying tribute to the STUC, to Helen and to Grahame Smith, your General Secretary. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The STUC has always been the voice for working people across Scotland, highlighting injustices and fighting for people’s rights, not just in Scotland but right across the world. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In the past, and still today, you have fought for the rights of people at work, and shone a light on racism, sexism and homophobia. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">As Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, I am proud to have the STUC, and your member unions, as part of our Labour family. You make us stronger, and nothing will ever call into question the historic link between the Labour Party and the Trade Unions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, when I accepted the invitation to speak here at your Congress, I didn’t expect to be facing the circumstances we are dealing with today. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In just a matter of weeks, we will go to the polls again to elect a new UK Government.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The stakes at this election really could not be higher. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s a choice between a hard right Tory Government, intent on pursuing a hard Brexit at any cost. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Or a Labour Government that is offering better and fairer choices, and will put workers’ rights and the values of trade unionism at the heart of everything we do. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That is the choice that is on offer on June 8th.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And what an opportunity that is.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Think about what this Tory Government has meant for people across this country over the past seven years, and then think of getting the opportunity to boot them out of office in just a few short weeks. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This is the Government of the bedroom tax, which led to tens of thousands of the most vulnerable people in our country being forced out of their homes. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It is the Government of a cruel and unusual sanctions regime which sees the sick and disabled penalised.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And, if we needed a more recent reminder of the cruelty of the Tories, this is the Government of the rape clause. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A policy implemented by Theresa May and defended by Ruth Davidson here in Scotland. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, if the mark of a civilised society is how we treat our sick, our disabled and the most vulnerable, this is a Government that is failing every test. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And that is why this election is an opportunity. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It is our opportunity to bring about the change that this country needs with a Labour Government, led by Jeremy Corbyn. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Our country stands at a crossroads in this election.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">More than ever, people here in Scotland, and right across the UK, feel left behind and marginalised. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">They continue to feel that politics isn’t working and that politicians aren’t doing enough to address their concerns. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Our job is to change that. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And, as the Labour Party has always done, our starting point is making sure that everyone has a decent high quality job that pays a real living wage. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Because making sure that people have good jobs isn’t – as you know – just about creating a stronger economy. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s about giving people their place in society, and the dignity they deserve. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s not just good enough to give people jobs, they have to be well paid and they have to come with rights and protections, guaranteed by trade unions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But under this Tory Government, we’ve seen our country’s economy driven to low wages, low productivity and low investment. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Workers across the country have seen their incomes stagnate over the past decade, and even today real wages are 10% lower than they were in 2007. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">5.7 million people across the UK are in jobs that pay less than the living wage. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And the productivity gap, that even the Chancellor has admitted is “shocking”, still goes without any real solution, and the UK continues to have some of the lowest productivity in Europe. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">All of this means that people are working longer and harder for less. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But while people at the very top are getting tax breaks, working families are on average set to be £1,400 a year worse off by 2020. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And the Government now even have to admit that their “National Living Wage” won’t hit the £9 they promised by 2020.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Meanwhile, Scotland’s economy shrank in the final quarter of 2016 and continues to lag way behind the UK’s GDP growth.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Our two biggest industries – finance and oil and gas – which employ tens of thousands of your members continue to go through tough times.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The North Sea has not recovered from its most recent slump, and experts predict that we may be about to lose 20% of Scotland’s jobs in the financial sector to automation over the next two years. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Already, thousands of people in administration jobs in Edinburgh have lost their jobs because they have been replaced by machines. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And this is a trend that is only going to increase in the coming years. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">So, we need solutions to our economic problems that address both the challenge of low living standards, and the risks presented by the changing nature of the economy across the UK. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s why we’ll start by making the National Living Wage a real living wage of £10 an hour. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And we’ll write the real living wage into law so that everyone will have enough to live on. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This change would bring an immediate increase in living standards to people across our country, but it would also provide a much needed economic boost.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And we must also guarantee the rights of people at work, and the rights of people to organise and be members of trade unions. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That is why the next Labour Government will stand by its promise and repeal the Tories’ anti-Trade Union Bill. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Trade Unions don’t need more restrictions on your ability to organise. You need to be able to organise in even more workplaces, and be recognised for the benefits you can provide to employers as well as employees. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Employers like Lidl, who I have lobbied recently after USDAW highlighted the difficulty they have been having trying to organise there. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s the responsibility of all of us to show the benefits that unions can bring and the real difference they can make. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We also need to get to grips with the structure of our economy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">For too long, London and the South East of England has raced ahead of the rest of the UK, while too many other nations and regions have fallen behind. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">If our country is to be successful, it needs to be firing on all cylinders. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And that means every part of the United Kingdom working at full capacity. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That is why the next Labour Government would establish a National Investment Bank and Regional Investment Banks across the UK, to help unlock £500 billion of investment and lending, including a £20 billion Scottish Investment Bank. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s the real change that’s on offer with Labour at this election. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And, friends, with Brexit around the corner it is more important than ever that we begin to think about the kind of country we want to build after the UK leaves the EU. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">With the Tories it’s absolutely clear what that will look like. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Theresa May has already made it clear that she’s willing to turn Britain into a bargain basement tax haven if she doesn’t get a deal on Brexit. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We can’t allow that to happen. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Government’s handling of Brexit has shown us the risks they’re willing to take with our country’s economy. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Threatening to walk away from the EU without a deal is no worse than Nicola Sturgeon’s threat to walk away from the UK with independence. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Both the Tory approach and the SNP approach would lead to job losses and even more austerity than we’re already facing. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And the UK Government’s refusal to take EU nationals off the table as bargaining chips is just another example of their lack of compassion. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s why I’m proud that Labour’s Shadow Brexit Secretary, Keir Starmer, made absolutely clear yesterday that we would unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU migrants on day one of a Labour Government. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Why? Because, friends, it is the right thing to do. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">These are people who have chosen to come to the UK, to make their lives here, to raise families and contribute to our economy here. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We shouldn’t then make them bargaining chips in our negotiations with the EU. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Ruth Davidson must now commit the Tories to providing the same guarantee in her party's manifesto. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Anything else would add to the growing evidence that she isn't a different kind of Tory after all.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In our approach to Brexit, Labour would take a very different direction to the Tories, putting the rights and protections we have gained by being part of Europe right at the heart of our country’s future. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But it also provides us with an opportunity here in Scotland to build on the rights we already have. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Earlier this year, at our Party Conference in Perth, the Scottish Labour Party endorsed federalism as our preferred constitutional model. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This would mean putting power closer to people in every nation and region of the UK – providing an answer to people who feel that politics is too detached and too remote. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">For us in Scotland, this would mean considerably more powers for the Scottish Parliament. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">These aren’t power for the sake of it. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">When Labour has argued for more power for Scotland in the past – right from the early days of devolution – it has been about giving us powers for a purpose. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">There is no point in hoarding power in Holyrood. They have to be used. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Our starting point is that any powers returning to the UK that are already devolved should not be re-reserved. That means that powers over things such as agriculture, fisheries and development programmes should come straight to Holyrood, along with their budgets. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But I don’t think we should stop there. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Brexit provides us with the opportunity to go even further. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">With the application of the social chapter ending in the UK, now is the right time to think about where power best lies over other areas such as employment law and immigration. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I believe the UK should guarantee a minimum set of rights across the whole country, but the idea of allowing nations or regions of the UK to build upon this is a strong one. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">So here in Scotland, we could choose to extend employment rights or top up the minimum wage. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We would want to consult fully with all trade unions before making such a change, but the argument is compelling. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Similarly, the UK will now have to develop and design a new immigration system fit for a post Brexit UK. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Here in Scotland, we have long had different migration needs from other parts of the country. That is why it is right that we should now look at devolving powers over who is able to come in and out of the country.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This would allow us to create a fair and flexible system to meet our needs.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I’m pleased that the STUC have also endorsed these calls earlier in the week, and I’m looking forward to working with you and hopefully making them a reality in the future.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The next six weeks are going to be a crucial time in the life of our country. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This is when we will decide the direction we will take, and with it the character of the decisions that will be made about Brexit and the future of our country. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">My message to you today is this. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We have a chance to get rid of this Tory Government. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And you can only do that by standing with the Labour movement, and supporting the Labour Party. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Clause One of the Labour Party’s rule book says that the purpose of the Labour Party is:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">“to organise and maintain in Parliament and in the country a political Labour Party.”</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In this election campaign over the next six weeks, I will do all I can to make sure we have a Labour Government. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A Labour Government that will end the trade union bill, abolish the rape clause and ensure fair wages and decent work for all. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A Labour Government, led by Jeremy Corbyn, with real compassion.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A Labour Government, friends, that puts our principles into practice in the place where Labour should be:</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In power in the interests of working people </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Thank you.</span></span>Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-68606430232407790192017-04-25T14:20:00.000+01:002017-04-25T14:27:16.512+01:00Trade Unions Place Women’s Voices Centre Stage<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Annette Drylie, </b></span></span><b style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">GMB Scotland</b><br />
<b style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Chair, STUC Women’s Committee</b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">120th STUC Annual Congress</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">ongress, it is my honour to address you as Chair of the STUC Women’s Committee. I would like to begin by thanking all of my colleagues on the Committee and my own trade union for the support they have given me to take on this role.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Liliany Obando, Human Rights Defender and University Lecturer in Colombia, has been granted amnesty. It has been more than eight years since she was first arrested for her commitment to human rights and for peace in Colombia, and today we can celebrate that at least some sense of justice has been served for Liliany and her family.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Now more than ever, our movement must strive to ensure the voice of women is heard. In just a few weeks’ time, elections will take place for every local council in Scotland. Despite the fact that three of the main political parties here are led by women, and the fact that we once again have a woman living at number 10 Downing Street, when it comes to local elections, the political parties have put forward 70% male candidates. As a worker in local government, I know first-hand that decisions taken in Scotland’s Council Chambers matter. The harsh reality for women as workers, and as the predominant carers of the young and old, is that it is we who are hit hardest by the same of austerity in Scottish local government.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Decisions taken here in Scotland have accelerated Tory austerity onto local government and the impact is felt most by women workers in our councils, still more likely to be low paid, more likely to be held back, or looked over, and more reliant on many of the services which are being cut.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Congress, we need a politics which delivers for all women, not just those who have been lucky enough to reach the top.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Congress, we need an honesty in Scottish politics which means more than bemoaning the Tories, whilst passing on their cuts to our local services. I ask for all of your support to expose the shame of austerity in local government. Be in no doubt, a fairer Scotland will not be built on the backs of working women.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Every generation of women must renew our commitment to tackling inequality in the workplace and in society. Our fight is now for the WASPI women retiring with less than they planned for and for all women whose lower wages during their working lives leads seamlessly into less pension provision whenever they retire.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This year, we are marking the 50th anniversary of the achievement of the 1967 Abortion Act and celebrating the women who went before us and campaigned for autonomy over their reproductive rights. With devolution of abortion law to the Scottish Parliament, it now falls to us to safeguard free access to safe, legal abortion services and to ensure that devolution is a chance to improve the rights of women, not diminish them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Congress, there is also today an issue on which we must campaign, which even our foremothers would have struggled to believe is real. Cuts to tax credits and welfare reform, more generally, has been an attack primarily upon the living standards and opportunities of women to get on, and get by. No so-called reform is more reprehensible, however, than the Tory ‘rape’ clause. Let the message go out from this hall today, nut just to the UK Government and their supporter, Ruth Davidson, this movement stands with the women victims that you are humiliating and the child your bureaucracy seeks to officially brand as the product of rape.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A Tory Government, led again by a woman, but as never before showing its true colours on the dignity of women. Congress, the ‘rape’ clause will not stand, and no matter how long it takes to beat this cruel measure, trade union women will fight it and those who have imposed it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Over the next year, we will also take forward our campaign to raise awareness of menopause issues in the workplace, and also in our trade unions. We will also prioritise our campaign for a gendered understanding of how women experiencing mental ill-health at work can be supported.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Congress, our movement marches forward with those who have gone before us and preparing the way for those who follow. I will do everything I can in my year as Chair of the STUC Women’s Committee, to support and encourage women to lead in our movement and to challenge privilege where it exists amongst us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I look forward to your support in my task, and I wish to extend an invitation to join the Committee at our Annual Conference, in Glenrothes later this year, and I would like to wish you all well for the reminder of Congress. </span></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-58851745340685472292017-04-24T16:40:00.004+01:002017-04-24T17:10:12.776+01:00Address to STUC Annual Congress by Nicola Sturgeon MSP, First Minister of Scotland<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Nicola Sturgeon MSP</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">First Minister of Scotland</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">120th STUC Annual Congress</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Introduction</b></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZT9B_SyMn41w-HP4Leaqp0GyhAfE4xfKax8-jrACDI6B_SLDdHNcHklvbIm4MQucDK5sLMTAONztaejAPKn7TzWkM28sG8WXXy_2ghh9FlwJtklxYxBJ47QawKjfCmroiZIvuAjS5VRB/s1600/stuc17236.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggZT9B_SyMn41w-HP4Leaqp0GyhAfE4xfKax8-jrACDI6B_SLDdHNcHklvbIm4MQucDK5sLMTAONztaejAPKn7TzWkM28sG8WXXy_2ghh9FlwJtklxYxBJ47QawKjfCmroiZIvuAjS5VRB/s320/stuc17236.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Thank you, Grahame. Let me again congratulate today’s award winners. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Their achievements have made a very real difference to people’s lives - and helped to further the values of the trade union movement.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Of course, they are just a few of the outstanding examples of the important work being done by union reps across Scotland. That work is just one of the many things that makes trades unions so vital – to our economy and our society.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And that’s relevant to what I’m going to speak about today. Because I want to talk about the some of the ways the Scottish Government works with the STUC, and employers, to make Scotland a fairer and more prosperous country. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>General Election/Brexit</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But first, I want to talk about the important decisions that Scotland faces.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Because we are, of course, at the start of a general election campaign. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A general election campaign called by the PM for one purpose - to strengthen the grip of the Tory party and crush dissent, and to do so before criminal prosecutions for alleged expenses fraud at the last election catches up with her.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">So the question that confronts us is this: what kind of country do we want to be? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The different parties will obviously set out their competing visions in the weeks ahead.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">One of those visions, the Tory vision, should be ringing alarm bells loud and clear across Scotland.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The hard-liners have taken over the Tory Party.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And now those Tory hard-liners want to take over the country.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Scotland knows there has always been a cost to voting Conservative.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But the price of voting Tory at this election has never been higher.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And it will be those least able to pay that price who will bear the biggest burden.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Tories will impose a double hit on Scottish families and communities:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">They will make Scotland a poorer country.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And a more unfair, unequal society.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Don't just take my word for it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Resolution Foundation think-tank issued its annual audit of living standards recently.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It said this: “A particularly tight squeeze on poorer households will actually see their incomes fall, and is set to drive the biggest rise in inequality over a parliament since Margaret Thatcher’s time in Downing Street.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And they go on to say:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">“….the unequal impact of the upcoming squeeze is the result of government policy on tax and benefits.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Now, much of political debate in the UK at present, of course, is dominated by Brexit.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And our relationship with Europe is of central importance to the kind of country we will be.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But the hard-line Tory plans for post-Brexit Britain are about far more than EU relations.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">They see Brexit as a means to an end.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And that end is a low tax, low wage, low regulation UK. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We already know Brexit will hit wages and jobs here in Scotland. Leaving the single market will cause serious damage to our export prospects. It could jeopardise the vital inward investment that creates jobs. And it could limit our ability to attract and retain those EU citizens who contribute so much to our society and our workforce.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The UK Treasury itself has said Brexit will leave the whole of the UK “permanently poorer”.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But there is even more at stake. EU legislation currently guarantees us important rights – covering things like paid leave, working hours, and maternity pay. It sets baseline standards when it comes to health and safety practices and the treatment of agency workers. And it provides us with important protections from discrimination. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But now the Tories are threatening to walk away from the EU entirely and in their words “change our economic model.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We should be in no doubt. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">A changed model is precisely what the former Chancellor, Lord Lawson had in mind when he said: “Brexit gives us the opportunity …..to finish the job that Margaret Thatcher started.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That would be a catastrophe for Scotland’s communities.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Even with a small majority the Tories have introduced the bedroom tax, the two-child tax credit cap and the shameful rape clause. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">With a large majority of hard-line Tories, our social security system – that so many depend upon – will never have been in greater danger. And we have seen just this weekend that the triple lock on pensions will be under threat too.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The truth is the Tories are starting to think they can do anything to Scotland and get away with it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Brexit is a good example of that. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Despite saying she would seek a UK approach to triggering Article 50, the Prime Minister rejected the Scottish Government's compromise plan to protect our place in the single market.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Indeed she announced unilaterally, with no consultation, that the UK was to leave the Single Market – no matter the cost. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">As a result Scotland now faces the prospect of being taken out of the EU, against its will.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And I know we share the same concerns as the STUC and want to see many of the same solutions. How many of us could honestly look any worker in the eye and say we trust Theresa May’s Tories with the minimum wage, employment rights or equalities law. I know I couldn’t.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Far from seeing an overdue crackdown on zero hours contracts by a UK government, for example, we'd be more likely to see an erosion of workers' rights that would be both dangerous and unacceptable.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And when it comes to migration - yes there are challenges that must be addressed - but we cannot stand by and watch EU citizens living in Scotland be deprived of their rights and nor can we allow Theresa May to shut the doors of this country to a valued workforce in a way that risks shutting the doors of many of our businesses or driving away essential staff for our public services. That would be an act of economic self harm that would damage all of us. And it would be wrong. Politicians must have the courage to say so.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">So I can tell you that the SNP and the Scottish Government support the 6 key demands that the STUC is making and with a strong voice at Westminster and a strong Scottish parliament we will keep fighting to bring those powers to Scotland at the earliest opportunity. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The fact is that it has never been more important for people across Scotland to think clearly and ask themselves this question:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">How can we best protect Scotland from the hard-line Tories? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s why the next few weeks – and the next two years, as Brexit negotiations are completed – will be hugely important for Scotland’s future.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Indeed, faced with the prospect of a PM who, in her own words, wants to strengthen her own hand to deliver the kind of hard Brexit she wants, it is more important than ever that, firstly, Scotland sends strong voices to Westminster and then, when the terms of Brexit are clear, that the people of Scotland should have a choice about our own future. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">For a Westminster government to seek to block that choice - and instead decide our future for us - is undemocratic and unsustainable. </span></span><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Meeting Economic Challenges</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Of course, in addition to protecting our relationship with Europe, the Scottish Government is also working with unions to meet other challenges that our country faces. We’re still recovering from the global downturn in the oil and gas sector. UK cuts to public spending have harmed our economic growth, our public services and our social security system. And, partly as a result, too many people find themselves in jobs that offer too little stability or security. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">There are other longer term issues facing our economy. These include our need to raise productivity; to adapt to the requirements of an ageing population; to ensure that everyone can earn a decent living, as more jobs become automated; and to manage the move to a low or no carbon economy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Now the Scottish Government has taken major steps to meet these challenges and seize new opportunities. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">For example, we’ve supported the establishment of eight innovation centres – bringing together academia and businesses – to ensure Scotland remains at the forefront in areas of huge economic importance, like biotechnology, oil and gas, and data science.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We’ve made unprecedented investment in Scotland’s infrastructure, through transport projects like the Queensferry Crossing, the Aberdeen Western Peripheral route, and the Edinburgh-Glasgow rail improvements; and through our broadband programme, which is on track to deliver superfast broadband access to 100% of homes by 2021. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And we’ve taken every opportunity to support a vibrant green economy. That support has helped Scotland become a world-leader in renewable energy.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But we know that one of the most important things we can do to build a stronger economy is to tackle inequality. The evidence is clear that greater inequality has a negative impact on economic growth. That’s why creating a more equal society is at the heart of our economic policy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Support for Trade Unions</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And we know that strong trade unions play a hugely important role in helping achieve that. Research shows that lower levels of union membership reduces pay – not just for union members, but across society. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s why we value trade unions and the contribution you make to our economy. That is why we opposed the UK Trade Union Act. That legislation represents a direct threat to unions; to the fundamental rights of workers; and to the collaborative approach we take here in Scotland.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And let me make clear today - the SNP supports it's immediate repeal.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But in the meantime, through our Trade Union Fair Work and Modernisation Fund, we’ve sought to limit the negative effects of the Act. Today, I can announce that over the next year we will provide an additional £250,000 to that Fund. It will ensure that trade union reps are not needlessly diverted by the burdens of the legislation from their most important role – supporting members and promoting fairer work practices.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And where the Scottish Government has the power or the discretion, as an employer, we will not invoke the provisions of the Act against unions. We will ensure that check-off remains and is not delivered at cost which penalises unions. And we will use our discretion as an employer to ensure the minimum one week notice period for industrial action is required.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Make no mistake. The Tories' legislation is designed to weaken unions. To cast you as an enemy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Well, let me be clear. You are not the enemy. You are our partners.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Sometimes, you are critical partners - that's as it should be.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But you are vital partners. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">By standing together and working together, we will build a better country.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Fair Work</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That's why we must do more than just mitigate the consequences of the UK Government’s Trade Union Act. </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">We want to work with you to build a fairer, more prosperous nation. For example, the Scottish Government and the STUC have agreed to work together on a project examining the impact of technological advances on the labour market. That’s going to be one of the key issues affecting the workforce in the coming years. So it’s vital that government, unions and employers work together to adapt to its implications.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This kind of partnership approach underpins Scotland’s Fair Work Convention. The Convention brings together representatives from unions and the public, private and third sectors to help shape and drive our agenda for Fair Work. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">As you know, the Living Wage is a big part of that agenda. The Scottish Government was the first government in the UK to pay the real Living Wage. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And wherever we can, we use procurement to encourage its use in all public sector contracts. And through the initiative that the Scottish Government funds, more and more Scottish-based organisations have now become accredited Living Wage employers. When I spoke to this Congress in 2015, 150 companies had signed up. Today, more than 780 organisations are accredited. And we’ve set a target of increasing that number to 1000 by the end of the autumn. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In addition, almost 350 companies have signed our Scottish Business Pledge - committing themselves to good employment and business practices. One of the values the Pledge seeks to encourage is gender equality in the workplace. That’s another major focus of Fair Work agenda. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We know we need to close the gap between the proportion of men and the proportion of women in the workforce. Our commitment to almost double free childcare entitlement will help achieve that, by removing one of the main barriers that prevents women returning to work. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And we also want to address the lack of women in senior positions. That’s why, later this year, we will legislate to ensure gender balance on public sector boards. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But as you all know, there are employment inequalities across other protected characteristics – like race and disability. So I can announce today that, through our new Workplace Equality Fund, we will provide an initial £500,000 to help address these disparities. The money will go to groups who can demonstrate that their efforts will help people overcome barriers to employment.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s a small but potentially significant way in which we can help address a major economic and social issue. And it’s in-keeping with the broader principles of the union movement. By ensuring everyone in society is able to flourish, everybody in Scotland will benefit. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Since the start of devolution, the STUC has worked with different Scottish Governments to make Scotland a more equal, inclusive and successful country. You’ve helped the Scottish Parliament legislate for social progress. And you’ve been at the vanguard of making workplaces more productive and protecting people in Scotland from the worst effects of austerity.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">As I said at the beginning of this speech, this is a challenging time for Scotland. We face the prospect of a Brexit, implemented by an out-of-control, hard-line Tory party. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But through all the challenges we face, our trade union movement remains a source of huge strength for our country. I want to thank you for all you do. And I pledge that the Scottish Government will continue to work with you to make Scotland a fairer, more prosperous and more equal nation. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Thank you.</span></span>Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-13257309808533103762017-04-24T13:58:00.002+01:002017-04-24T13:58:29.565+01:00Address to STUC Annual Congress by Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Jeremy Corybn MP</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Leader of the Labour Party</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">120th STUC Annual Congress</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">omrades and friends, it’s great to be in Scotland, and it’s wonderful to be here at the STUC.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The STUC has a wonderful tradition of fighting for working people in Scotland and influencing public policy debates on behalf of working people. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The STUC, and its trade union and trades council affiliates, have been at the forefront of progress in Scotland. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s the collectivism of the trade union movement through working people fighting alongside each other that has always been and always will be the driver of great progressive change in Scotland, in the rest of the UK and across the world. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And no more so is that the case than the inspiring young activists involved with the Better Than Zero campaign. Their vibrant and engaging action is a shining example of modern trade unionism, carrying on the historic fight in a system still rigged against working people.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But that fight is one we have all collectively committed to and continue to do so, because friends, it works. And we won’t let anyone tell us otherwise.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">It’s trade unions that have driven up wages and living standards, health and safety in the workplace, and challenged prejudice and discrimination.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And its Unions that have worked with ourselves in the Labour Party to transform our society to offer the opportunities to our people that so many of our forefathers, and especially our foremothers, unfortunately did not enjoy themselves.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">They are our heroes. It was our predecessors who suffered exploitation in the workplace and wider society, and it was they who were not prepared to stand idly by, who instead chose to fight back and win many of the gains that we enjoy today. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Our NHS, our social security safety net, our education system, and so much more, were won on the shoulders of these giants in the Labour and trade union movement and none of us should ever forget that. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, that’s why I could not be at a better or more appropriate place to start our General Election Campaign in Scotland.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We are standing for the many, not the few. And it is through our collective power in a trade union that we ensure the many, standing together, have the power to stand up to the rich and powerful few.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Labour Party will always cherish, sustain and protect our relationship with the Trade Union movement and the working people you represent. You are our DNA, you are our family, and we will never, ever apologise for the closeness of our relationship with you.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, just like Keir Hardie, I am proud to be a trade unionist and I carry my card everywhere I go!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That is why one of the very first things we will do when forming our Labour Government will be to repeal the vicious Tory Trade Union Act, giving working people the rights to collectively organise and make their lives better, safer and more content.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">While the timing of the election was unexpected, the choice is clear and the stakes are high.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">But let no-one be in any doubt: we are in this election to win it, and we will fight for every seat in every corner of these isles.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">I said the other day that the dividing lines in this election could not be clearer from the outset: it is the Conservatives, the party of privilege and the richest, versus the Labour Party, the party that is standing up for working people to improve the lives of all. That is the real choice. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Only us or the Tories can form a Government, and I implore Scots to fight for the party of progress, and not the vicious Tory Party, who alongside their previous coalition partners, the Lib Dems, unleashed an unprecedented attack on working people in this country. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The choice facing the country at this election is clear: it's the people versus the powerful. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Labour will challenge the rigged system that is holding our country back.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In this election Labour will offer hope to the nurse, the teacher, the small trader, the carer, the builder, the office worker, the bus driver, the factory worker, the farm labourer and the factory worker.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will provide the change and the transformative policy programme that puts power and opportunity in people’s hands. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will fight this election offering a positive vision for our country. We will present to the British people an economic and political alternative, and a promise that we will make our country work for the many not the few.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will make jobs better and more secure with a real living wage and stronger rights at work. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will end the public sector pay cap that disrespects our committed public servants every day.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will end the need for food banks. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will upgrade our economy to create wealth for all our people in the 21st Century through investment in our infrastructure, helping our small businesses, delivering high skill jobs and ending poverty pay. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will never put tax giveaways to the corporations and the wealthiest above our vital public services like our social care system and NHS, and those engines of opportunity our schools and colleges. We will give them the funding they need.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Scottish people are facing a crucial choice in this election. The Tories are trying to use Brexit to turn Britain into a low-wage tax haven, run in the interests of the powerful. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Labour will negotiate a Brexit that will build on the gains won for workers, consumers and the environment in the EU. We will put jobs, living standards and human rights first.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, this is a General Election; it is not a referendum, and only Labour can form a Government and offer an alternative that will transform the lives of Scots.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The truth is that the Tories and SNP are obsessed with their power struggles against Brussels and Westminster, when the energy should be used to change and transform our economy to ensure no-one and no community is left behind.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Tories are Tories…they will always seek to undermine, dilute or simply eliminate all the gains that we won. That’s who they are and that’s what they do. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The Tories act for the powerful, and the powerful back them. That’s what we are up against, that’s what our predecessors were up against; it never stopped them and it won’t stop us.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Much of the media and establishment are saying that this election is a foregone conclusion.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">They think there are rules in politics, which if you don’t follow you don’t win. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">So you start doffing your cap to powerful people, accepting their parameters so nothing can really change. Comrades, it is when you start doing that, that you really can’t win.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Our movement knows it. It is only by us standing together as the people, for the many not the powerful few, that we really win. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, only Labour has the policies that will challenge these powerful interests, and transform the lives of working people. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And friends let us remember that the only REAL Progressive Alliance is the Labour and Trade Union movement WORKING TOGETHER … it always has been and always will be. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s why Labour is campaigning to win every seat across the whole country. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The deal we'll do is with the electorate is to be a government for the many not the few.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">The truth is that the politics and policies of Labour are needed now more than ever as our country becomes more unfair, more unjust and more unequal. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In Scotland, 260 thousand children, 40,000 more than last year, are living in poverty.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Health inequalities stubbornly persist, educational attainment differences are worsening, and the numbers of people working but still considered to be living in poverty are at their worse point since devolution. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">That’s surely where the focus of all politicians should be.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will redistribute the wealth in our society to ensure that people are paid at least a real living wage of £10 an hour. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Transforming the lives of the near half a million Scots who currently earn less than the living wage, wiping out at a stroke the concept of ‘working poor’.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will protect pensioner incomes by legislating to keep the Triple-Lock on state pensions, protecting the pensions of over 1 million Scottish pensioners, guaranteeing them a basic income necessary to live a dignified life in retirement. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Only Labour will protect pensions.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will make sure public spending will be used to force a change for good in working and environmental conditions, equal opportunities and fair pay. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will put conditions on the massive public spending budget with private business to ensure no company wins a public contract if they avoid or evade taxes, don’t pay their local suppliers on time, or don’t recognise trade unions. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">This will benefit Scottish workers and Scottish small businesses currently contracted by the UK Government to the tune of billions of pounds. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will create a Scottish National Bank under Scottish control and backed by the National Investment Bank, with £20bn of lending power to deliver the funds to local projects and Scotland's small businesses, creating work and stimulating the economy. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will aggressively take on the tax avoiders and evaders, starting with having corporations publish their tax returns.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will ban zero hour contracts, giving new protections to the 60,000 Scottish workers currently with no guaranteed hours. How can people plan or just pay the rent when they have no security of income? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Is it right they wake every morning and then wait for a text? Not a text from loved ones or a family member, but to see if they have a job that day?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Unlike others, we will set up inquiries into blacklisting and Orgreave, and we would urge the Scottish Government to set up an inquiry into the actions of the Scottish police during the Miners’ strike.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will give all workers equal rights from day one, to stop some workers being exploited and others undercut.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will introduce a right to own, giving workers first refusal when their company faces a change of ownership or closure.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We’ll properly fund the Health & Safety Executive, shamefully cut back under this Government, compromising those great gains that our movement has historically fought so hard for.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">And we will work with trade unions and industry to reintroduce sectoral collective bargaining across the country.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will also introduce 4 new public holidays giving people the time to lead better and more fulfilling lives, helping productivity at the same time. And we will ask for the support of the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland so that the same four holidays can be enjoyed across the United Kingdom.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, our aim is a country where everyone who can has the dignity OF work, and where everyone has a guarantee of dignity AT work.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, these are the type of transformative policies that can change people’s lives for the better.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Just like always has been, it is only Labour that will deliver for working people, small businesses and our most vulnerable people, none of the rest would even think of these type of policies, let alone achieve them.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Friends, it is only Labour that will focus on the kind of country we need to have after Brexit.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In the coming weeks Labour will lay out more of our policies that will unlock opportunities for every single person in this country.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will focus on giving people real control over their own lives and make sure that everybody reaps a just reward for the work that they do.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will no longer allow those at the top to leach off of those who bust their guts on zero hours contracts or those forced to make sacrifices to pay their mortgage or their rent.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Instead of the country’s wealth being hidden in tax havens, we will put it in the hands of the people of Britain, because they are the ones who earned it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">In this election Labour will lead the movement to make that change. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">We will build a new economy worthy of the 21st century, and we will build a country for the many, not the few.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;">Thank you very much.</span></span><br />
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-6673588946529992102017-04-24T10:29:00.000+01:002017-04-24T10:29:00.151+01:00Presidential Address to 120th Congress <div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Helen Connor, EIS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Presidential Address <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">120th STUC Annual
Congress<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Good
morning Congress and welcome to Aviemore.
It is an honour and a privilege to address you as STUC President. To be honest, I’m not exactly sure how I got
here – but here I am – my usual quiet, unassuming self.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Those of you who know
me well will know that I don't normally, indeed almost never, write a speech
before delivery. The one time that I do...what happens? A little change has to
be made?...Eh no! A General Election is called! A detailed response to this
will be given later in Congress but it would be remiss of me not to comment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Let's look at Theresa
May, the person who, apparently whilst walking in Wales came to this decision.
This is the same Theresa May who, on at least 3 occasions since she took office
in July last year said: 'there will be no general election'. This is the same
Theresa May who was a ‘remainer’ during the Brexit referendum but has now done
a huge volte- face. This is the same Theresa May who, when a 2nd Independence
Referendum was being discussed said ‘Now is not the time!’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So I tell you what
slogan cannot be used in the next 7 weeks - Trust Theresa? Trust the Tories? I
don't think so! How can we trust her on
employment rights? How can we trust her with our pensions? How can we trust someone who thinks it is
right to have a rape clause in the welfare system? Shame on her and shame on
Ruth Davidson who has consistently refused to condemn it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So Congress, as a
movement, it's full steam ahead for the next 7 weeks. We must engage our
members in the debate, we must ensure that poverty, jobs, public services, transport,
the NHS and education are at the forefront of this campaign. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We must ensure that the
next UK Government is one which has the interests of working people at heart. We must work together, as a movement, to
ensure that the Tories do not form the next Government! But I’ll say more on
looking at the next few weeks later, in the meantime you'll forgive me if I
look back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">On
occasions like this sometimes we can get nostalgic, and forgive me if I look
back a little before addressing the wider issues facing us. The one thread which has run through all my
life, even as a youngster, is a hatred of injustice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
school and at college I was always at the forefront of campaigns which tackled
this issue – whether that was about fairness for the then non certificate
pupils at my school, the challenge to teachers who really only bothered with
the ‘most able’ or the injustice in the late 70s of the attempt to close
Colleges of Education in Scotland. I still remember the boldness of student
unions across the country in occupying colleges to keep them open. Indeed I
well remember being involved in occupying the then Jordanhill College for 10
weeks. There was a degree of excitement in being able to be on the switchboard
saying Jordanhill College of Occupation, rather than Jordanhill College of
Education! We built that campaign over a
period of time and did indeed save these colleges for at least the next 10
years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
still smile to myself when I remember that during that time I was so busy with
the occupation that I failed all my exams. I didn’t tell my parents. I just
worked really hard for the resits and passed all of them! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">At
that time in my life the greatest injustice for me was the sudden loss of my
father at the age of 52. My wee dad was
one of the cleverest men I’ve ever met but he was the oldest of a family of 5
and had to leave school at 14 in order to make money for the family. He worked all his days in Welma/Sunblest
bakeries and was involved in the trade union there. He wasn’t a party political man but had a
huge sense of fairness which he passed on to me – along with his love of
Partick Thistle. Sadly he died a few
months before my graduation but I hope that over the years I have made him
proud in my continued fight for fairness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another
major turning point in my life was linked to the loss of my mother to lung
cancer. I was teaching in a fairly
challenging school in Coatbridge at the time and took some time off to look
after my mum. I had no regrets about doing that. However on my return to work,
my experience was not a great one!
Without going into too much detail, I was very clearly bullied. Let’s
not forget that most people who are bullied in their workplace are bullied at
the point when they are most vulnerable!
I know, for a lot of you in this Auditorium, the idea of me being
bullied is a bit odd. After all she’s loud, articulate, confident, you might
say!! That is true now but it has not
always been the case. From the time this
happened to me, I became determined that I was not going to allow this to
happen to anyone else and that determination is what has driven me ever since.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
of the most rewarding parts of my year as President has been the opportunity to
address the Equalities Conferences, meet new delegates, young and old and share
my story. I hope that story and my
openness about how tough things can and have been will help encourage others. The message of the Trade Union Movement has
to be - no matter where you are in our Movement, others will be there to
support. We are only as strong as one
another. We must never forget the individuals who face difficulties in their
workplace day and daily. That is who our Movement is here to protect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">My
involvement in the EIS locally and nationally over the last 30 years has been
very varied – as in all unions, we’ve had successes and failures – we’ve
experienced highs and lows but rest assured without the EIS, teachers and
lecturers across Scotland would be far worse off. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Without
my involvement in the EIS, I would never have become involved in the STUC and
I’m grateful to everyone in the EIS over the years for their encouragement to
become involved in the wider trade union movement. Of course I wouldn’t have become involved in
the EIS if I hadn’t been in education.
For the last 32 years I’ve been a teacher, both in primary and secondary
sectors. In all that time I can rarely
recall a period when I was more angry than I am now! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
are faced with a Scottish Government whose mantra is “We will close the
attainment gap”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
will improve Scottish education whilst at the same time cutting back on money
given to Local Authorities which run education.
We have a Government which embarked on a governance review in education
which no-one appeared to want, a governance review intended to divert directly
to Head Teachers. Earlier this year, the
review was put on hold pending consultation and, excuse my cynicism, to avoid
it being an issue in the forthcoming Council elections. But lo and behold, the Pupil
Equity Fund emerged. And what does that do? It gives money directly to Head
Teachers! Don’t get me wrong, additional
money for education is always welcome but this approach is fraught with danger.
It can undermine the role of Local Authorities in running our schools and being
accountable for doing so! It could,
longer term, lead to the academy approach which we see down South!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Let
me be very clear to the Scottish Government and indeed the Scottish Tories,
that the approach will not be tolerated in Scotland. We value our children’s education too much to
allow it to become a lottery!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLl-d2RzyBMIEKXDqSzwXN1EZn3j6P7Vqo0N0sot1-h179UGjJaP7AArYGIYZRltbg0619VqG1y2EDpG88J5mFgEMBa1FeYsGj_lVZCf0ZKZ2ZSdBM9rjhXBgNKU0AK05MY_L3aqgHfUa6/s1600/Helen-Quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLl-d2RzyBMIEKXDqSzwXN1EZn3j6P7Vqo0N0sot1-h179UGjJaP7AArYGIYZRltbg0619VqG1y2EDpG88J5mFgEMBa1FeYsGj_lVZCf0ZKZ2ZSdBM9rjhXBgNKU0AK05MY_L3aqgHfUa6/s400/Helen-Quote.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Don’t
get me started on closing the attainment gap!
This is an issue which goes far wider than the education system – it is
directly linked to poverty. How do you
expect children to attain when they are hungry, don’t have heating in their
homes or indeed a permanent home? You need look no further than the I Daniel
Blake film to see how devastating poverty is in the lives of many! Tackling this issue is a wider societal
issue! Schools can help but the deep
rooted causes of poverty begin far earlier than that. I’ll tell you how you don’t tackle the
attainment gap- and that is by continually testing children by the use of
standardised tests! As a teacher, as a professional, I will not give the same
test to all children when I know that their abilities are different. Why do we
differentiate our teaching and then administer the same test! I didn’t come
into teaching to see children fail! Just
as well I’m retiring soon, as I will not sacrifice my professionalism and the
self-confidence of my pupils in order to provide the Scottish Government with
data! Our children deserve better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Our
children also deserve a better future – a future without poverty, a future
without greed, a future without war, a future without fear. You can tell from this that I am desperately
trying to be optimistic about the future.
Easier said than done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I
reflect back to Dundee last year and listening to Lawrence’s Presidential
Address and thinking to myself – I’m sure things will get better! How wrong was I? It has been a very quick but extremely
eventful year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who
would have believed that we would have woken up on June 24th to find that the
UK had voted to leave the EU. No matter
your views on this Congress, I know they’ll be varied, make no mistake about
it, that referendum did not take place because the British people wanted it. It
took place because David Cameron was trying to appease people within his own
Party! It was a shameful abuse of power
by a Prime Minister. Incidentally where is he now? Rest assured he’s not worrying about
factories closing, border controls or zero hours contracts, and the trepidation
of EU citizens living, working and studying in Scotland and fearful of the
future! No, he and George have got their
cosy wee jobs, leaving the Trade Union Movement to champion the cause of the
workers. After that Brexit vote I heard
a lot of people saying – well it’s the will of the British people so we must
honour the result. It is our responsibility to challenge the assumptions
underlying that result. It is our responsibility to challenge anti-immigration
feelings. It is our responsibility to make it clear to the people of Scotland,
and indeed the UK, the risk we face to the rights which the EU affords us as
workers, citizens and unions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">This
feels like a year when truth died to be replaced by fear. This is not just a UK
phenomenon. Look at developments across the world. It is very difficult to look at the last year
and not mention election of Donald Trump, the chaos this has caused and the
legitimacy it has given to the rise of the political right across the
world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Again
I go back to our role to challenge. It is not good enough to abhor his views,
Le Pen’s views, UKIP’s views from the side-lines. We must be upfront as a
Movement in our challenge to them. Whether it is your neighbour, workmate or
family member, it has to happen. We
also have to openly challenge the abhorrent rape clause in the recent child
benefit forms! What kind of society do
we live in that thinks that kind of treatment of women and children is
acceptable. Ruth Davidson should be
ashamed of herself for acting as an apologist for this abhorrent policy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">We
must never let an injustice go by unchallenged.
As Martin Luther King said – ‘what you do not say is often more
important that what you do’!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">So
how do we, as a Movement, continue and strengthen challenge within
society? How do we make trade unions and
the trade union activity more relevant?
Sure, we hear on the news and in the media when there are strikes,
normally when they’re pointing out the inconvenience caused. I never quite get
why the media appears surprised at this inconvenience. The whole point of
industrial action is to demonstrate the inconvenience that would be caused if
workers were not doing the job that they do. Let there be no mistake though
Congress, industrial action will always be the last resort for trade unions and
their members and so it should be.
Industrial action has to be the culmination of a campaign and a tactic
which must ensure success!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">However
let us also be very clear that the fundamental right of an individual to
withdraw their labour is paramount. It
is a right which has been fought for over the years and one which the Trade
Union Act seeks to undermine. As a
Movement we are very clear – we will never surrender that right! We have work still to do on the Trade Union
Act, and let the message go out from this Congress that our fundamental right
to strike is not and never will be up for grabs!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">One
of the biggest challenges facing us as a Movement over the next few years, and
I do mean years, is that of public sector pay! The 1% pay cap on the public sector over
the last few years has meant a real terms pay cut for public sector workers who
are often working long hours, very stressed, suffering from work-related
illnesses and feeling extremely undervalued.
So, I ask myself, why have we not had mass industrial action across the
country in order to highlight this issue and put maximum pressure on employers
and politicians? The answer to that is
very varied and I’m sure we all have our own interpretation and analysis. My analysis, and it is only my analysis, is
that as a Movement we need to ensure that all of our affiliates have a detailed
organising strategy. By that I mean an
organising strategy which is long-term!
Let me take a few minutes to explain what I mean. Those of you in the Auditorium who know me
well will no doubt have a wry smile at me choosing a cake analogy here!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">A
cake, as you all no doubt know is made up of many layers ending with the ‘icing
on the top'. A trade union and its
members are exactly the same. In order to get to the ‘icing on the cake’ which
is very well supported industrial action, we must get the ingredients of the
other layers correct. Those layers are the organisational strategy. Those
layers are about the work of reps, and stewards at branch level Those layers
are the small but very worthwhile gains made by union branches day and daily,
whether they be on health and safety issues, or ending zero hours contracts, or
achieving guaranteed tea breaks or facilities, or automatic time off for
training, or sick pay, or pensions or equal pay and the many other gains made
at workplace level all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Those
layers are about communicating with members in many different ways, through
traditional meetings, through speaking to people one to one, through social
media. Those layers are about ensuring our members have access to quality union
led workplace learning. Those layers are about training and supporting people
on a daily basis wherever and whenever they need it. Those layers are about the STUC’s role in
supporting affiliates in their organising work, including access to the Union
Modernisation Fund which will enable all of these activities to happen!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">If
we, as a Movement, work on making sure these layers are built on a solid
foundation then when we get to the stage of putting the cake in the oven,
everything will be in place. Without a
long-term organising strategy how can we expect people to support trade union
action. It is arrogant of us to expect members to follow our lead if we have
not led them properly, if we have not taken them with us. With the Movement organised and involved then
the icing on the cake should bring us victory every time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Continuing
on the theme of challenge, the STUC itself faces challenges in the way we
operate with and co-ordinate within our affiliates. My Presidential year has been a challenging
one as we embarked on a restructuring internally and a reorganisation of
affiliation fees through a hard fought agreement with affiliates and the TUC to
ensure that Congress is properly resourced to meet the growing demands of
devolution and to develop the STUC's campaigning and organising. As an
organisation, we have a key role to play in supporting unions in their
organising and campaigning activity. I assure you we will continue to fulfil
that role. And, as ever, the work of our
Equalities Committees and Conferences will be at the forefront of the work we
take forward in the coming year. What they do in tackling discrimination and
campaigning for equality is central to our work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">None
of the work of the STUC can be taken forward without the dedication and hard
work of all of the staff. It’s not
really until you are in this position that you realise the amount of work the
staff put in. I would like to put on
record my personal thanks to them for their support during the last year. I’d also like to thank Satnam, my
Vice-President and Pat Rafferty, our Treasurer, and all other members of the
General Council for making my year such a smooth and enjoyable one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">I’ve
left three people to the end as I feel they deserve special mention. My own union, EIS General Secretary, Larry
Flanagan. At meetings of the General
Council you can always guarantee Larry has read all the papers thoroughly and
will ask the difficult and informed questions!
On a serious note, Larry has been a great support to me during this last
year – always a good listener.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">My
thanks also go to Dave Moxham, the STUC's Deputy General Secretary, for all his
support and encouragement throughout the year – again always available to
advise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Last
but certainly not least, my sincere thanks go to Grahame Smith, the STUC's
General Secretary. A few people have
said to me that Grahame has aged during my year as President. The poor guy is
always on tender hooks as to what I’ve got up to say or do next! I’m sure I’ve not been as rebellious as he
thought. From the many briefings at 8am
to the odd ‘well I wouldn’t advise that’ his advice, support, sometimes
grumpiness, but very genuine friendship has been great. Thanks Grahame.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">In
conclusion Congress, I’ve had a great year, I remain optimistic that together
as a Movement we are stronger together and I hope you enjoy the next few days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thank
you for listening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-42433000590929522662017-04-04T09:32:00.000+01:002017-04-04T09:32:49.645+01:00Protect Scotland’s Pubs<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is estimated that there are nearly 1000 tied pubs in
Scotland with one in almost every community. Tied pubs are those ‘tied’ into
rent arrangements with large owning companies – often known as ‘pubcos’.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Under the current arrangements, these tenants often have a
contractual obligation to buy some or all of their products from the pubco at
inflated prices. This can restrict the choice of beer, cider, wine and spirits
available for customers and result in more expensive drinks. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">From my experience meeting with Tied Pub tenants in my own
West Scotland region, I know how one-sided these tied arrangements can be. Many
tied pub tenants have described the difficultly in making a profit with
increasing rents and prices. Some have also described their frustration at
being unable to sell local products, which are popular with customers and
support their communities.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In May 2016, a Pubs Code and Adjudicator alongside a Market
Rent Only option was introduced in England and Wales to give more freedom to
tied pub tenants there. It will give tied pub tenants the potential opportunity
to opt out of their tied arrangements should they wish and ensure they pay a
fair market price for their premises.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">A new voluntary code was recently introduced in Scotland,
but is not adhered to by all pub companies and does not go as far as the
statutory code in England and Wales.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Under the current arrangements, Scottish tied pub tenants
are unfairly disadvantaged compared with their counterparts in other parts of
the UK. That’s why I have launched a consultation on a proposed Tied Pubs (Code
and Adjudicator) (Scotland) Bill to make conditions fairer for tied pub tenants
in Scotland.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">My Bill would establish a Scottish Pub Code and Adjudicator
alongside a Market Rent Only option like the one currently in place in England
and Wales, giving Scottish tied publicans the same rights and opportunities as
those south of the border.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This Bill is about three key things: fairness, choice and
jobs. Fairness for Scotland’s publicans so that they pay a fair price for their
premises and the products they sell; greater choice over the products on sale
and the creation and protection of jobs in Scotland’s pub and brewing industry.
</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Times are tough in the pub sector in Scotland with many
local community pubs under threat of closure. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Access to a fair and reasonable market rent for premises,
without strings attached, should be a right for Scottish publicans. By enabling
Scottish tied pub tenants the opportunity to opt out of their tied arrangements
if they wish, this will provide them with the flexibility they need to react to
changes affecting their business in a crowded and competitive market place. It
would also provide customers with a greater choice of products at potentially
lower prices. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As GMB Scotland Organiser Martin Doran has said, with
greater protection for workers in the industry as well as the potential
opportunity to create lots of new jobs, this proposal would provide a much
needed boost to Scotland’s pub and brewing industry. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is for all of the aforementioned reasons that this bill
already has the support of several organisations including GMB Scotland,
Scottish Licensed Trade Association and the Campaign for Real Ale.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The consultation will be open until the 20<sup>th</sup> of
June 2017 and I would ask everyone who is passionate about their local pub and
the wider pub industry in Scotland to respond. The more responses received, the
more momentum we can get behind this Bill which would ensure a fairer deal for
Scotland’s publicans.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">For more information on the Proposed Bill and to respond to
the consultation please visit our campaign website at: <a href="http://www.protectourpubs.scot./">www.protectourpubs.scot</a><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null">.</a></span></span></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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<![endif]--><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Neil Bibby MSP</b> | <b>West Scotland</b>
| <b>Labour </b></span></span></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-33696511079825064272017-02-17T13:34:00.001+00:002017-02-17T13:52:40.020+00:00A day without migrants: 20/2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On 22nd Sept 2016, a social media campaign was launched in Egypt by the International Organization for migration: <b>‘A Day Without Migrants,’</b>. </div>
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The aim was to highlight the real and positive impacts that migrants have on the host communities. Matt Carr, a freelance print and radio journalist, has urged migrants and their supporters to join in for a day of action on 20th February 2017 (20/2). He felt that the main triggers for this event were overpowering concern about worsening attitudes to migrants in the UK (Taylor D. (2016) the Guardian).</div>
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From the ambiguous idea that some sort of protest should be mounted, it is now taking a life of its own in calling for actions to support migrants’ right across the UK. A Day Without migrants is a National Day of Action on 20th Feb 2017 (20/2) to celebrate the contribution of migrants to the UK, to coincide with UN World Day of Social Justice.</div>
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Just imagine for 24 hours, migrants from inside and outside the European Union, and everyone who supports them, celebrate the contribution that migrants make, including a labour boycott to demonstrate how important migrants are to the UK workforce.</div>
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The aim of the day of action is to emphasise the varieties of work migrants undertake to help keep the UK economy afloat – from the NHS, to the hospitality sector, to harvesting fruits and vegetables in the fields. The work too often is low paid and involves long hours. The organisers say a day without migrant labour can demonstrate how much the economy would struggle without their contribution.</div>
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<b>Who is a migrant?</b></div>
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A migrant is any person living in a country other than where they were born. The number of international migrants in 2015 reached 244 million. (International Migration Report UN 2015). Women comprise slightly less than half of all international migrants worldwide representing 48% of global movement. Most migrants worldwide are of working age. As a result of this faster growth rate, the share of migrants in the total population reached 3.3 per cent in 2015. Many migrants living in Scotland have taken up citizenship. </div>
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<b>Why do we need 20/2?</b></div>
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In spite of the many benefits of migration, migrants themselves remain among the most vulnerable members of society. They often work with no job security on zero hours contracts and are often the first to lose their job in the event of an economic downturn, often working for less pay, for longer hours, and in worse conditions than national workers. </div>
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While for many migration is an empowering experience, others endure human rights violations, abuse and discrimination. Migrants, particularly women and children, are too often victims of human trafficking and the heinous forms of exploitation that human trafficking entails. Further, in many parts of the world, migration remains one of the few options for people, particularly young people, to find decent work, provide for their families and escape poverty, persecution and violence.</div>
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<b>What are we hoping to achieve?</b></div>
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A few days without migrant workers here could bring life to a halt soon enough. Migrant workers are found in both high skilled and low skilled industries. We can made a quick mental note of many ways on how we all depend on migrant labour: what if there were no au pairs/ cleaners/ house keepers working long hours so that thousands of professional women can get to work early and come home late; no migrants to sweep out the train/bus station concourses and opening their coffee shops before dawn; no cheap foreign contract cleaners in the financial centres/ hotels of the City; no foreign car washers for the executive cars; no overseas carers in the old people's homes; no Polish plumbers to fix the leaks; no Ukrainian builders on the construction sites; no Brazilians in the sandwich shops; no South Africans to pack the supermarket fruit and veg, and lets not talk about the many thousands of consultants, doctors/ GPs, nurses, care assistants and cleaners who work in our NHS helping cover the gaps caused by lack of Government funding. You can go on and on and on……you can create your own list of the debt we all owe to newly arrived workers who make our lives easier (Lawrence F.(2006) the Guardian). </div>
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What are we to do on 20/2? Well here is a website with a link to a face book page: <a href="http://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgows-migrant-populations-called-take-12007398">http://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgows-migrant-populations-called-take-12007398</a></div>
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We were asked to post a selfie supporting this day and take a day off, if you can and let’s all pause to reflect on the contribution that migrants make to Scotland. </div>
<br>Sofi Taylor<br><b>STUC Black Workers’ Committee </b></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-57631876205579128712016-11-25T12:59:00.000+00:002016-11-25T13:06:25.616+00:00There is no place for any form of racist or religious prejudice in modern Scotland- Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister<div class="MsoPlainText">
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I am very pleased to support the “No Racism: Protecting Rights, Defending Communities” Anti-Racism March and Rally 2016. </div>
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Scotland is a diverse country, and cultural attitudes have created a climate where diversity is increasingly recognised, accepted, celebrated. Individuals and communities are becoming more comfortable in demonstrating their multifaceted identities. </div>
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The outcome of the EU Referendum has caused understandable anxiety within the EU community, and I am alert to the fact that our communities are feeling more vulnerable. Let me be clear there is no place for any form of racist or religious prejudice in modern Scotland and it will not be tolerated. </div>
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We have made it crystal clear that the 181,000 EU nationals who have chosen to make their home here in Scotland are welcome and their contribution is valued. We will continue to press the UK Government to guarantee the residency status of fellow EU nationals who have made Scotland their home.</div>
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The Scottish Government is committed to tackling hate crime and we will continue to work with communities to create a Scotland which celebrates diversity and creates equality of opportunity for everyone. </div>
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We have established a strong framework and enforcement of legislation, including tackling antisocial behaviour; threatening or abusive behaviour and racially aggravated harassment. We have published a Race Equality Framework which will run until 2030 to take a long term approach towards improving outcomes for Scotland’s ethnic minority communities. </div>
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This event is an important reminder of the need to be vigilant about the threat racism poses to our communities and I commend the STUC and their partners for the leadership they have shown on this vital issue for many years I would like to send my best wishes to everyone taking part. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the </span><a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" style="font-family: "times new roman";" target="_blank">STUC Website</a><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> or the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" style="font-family: "times new roman";" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-42611143991255451752016-11-24T17:00:00.001+00:002016-11-24T20:16:11.609+00:00In this most turbulent of years, we must stand firmly against racism- Kezia Dugdale, Scottish Labour Party<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKOuKnUCeEHfhixkdI8I5vTsyVdmSDOYi_2T0Pg9VGU31UHRPXGMUnSZT_1Oexj9fz3m8Vz9XgRqktMOLxHz8z-lslUdUc-4ScsWQUZRd4-jXqGgbnD1Xpi_fPP2tpBnxh45ae-qcwc2V/s1600/KeziaDugdaleMSP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiKOuKnUCeEHfhixkdI8I5vTsyVdmSDOYi_2T0Pg9VGU31UHRPXGMUnSZT_1Oexj9fz3m8Vz9XgRqktMOLxHz8z-lslUdUc-4ScsWQUZRd4-jXqGgbnD1Xpi_fPP2tpBnxh45ae-qcwc2V/s1600/KeziaDugdaleMSP.JPG"></a>Last year, the annual St Andrew's Day March sent a powerful message that refugees are welcome in Scotland.</div>
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A humanitarian tragedy was unfolding across the globe, and the STUC led the charge for those of us who believe in compassion.</div>
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Since then, our world has witnessed one of the most turbulent years in living memory.</div>
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Along with the STUC I campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, but the referendum result did not go our way.</div>
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It was disappointing not least because of the economic consequences, such as the detrimental impact on the Scottish jobs and investment that the STUC fights for every single day.</div>
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But it was equally distressing because of the rise our country has witnessed in hate crime. </div>
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The vote across the UK was a result of years of growing distance between people with power and the people who power is exercised upon, yet there were those in the Leave campaign who used EU migrants as scapegoats.</div>
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Since June, an argument about the future of our country has been reduced to the sickening sight of Tory MPs arguing over whether EU migrants get to stay in our country, with increasingly xenophobic rhetoric seeping out from around Theresa May’s Cabinet table.</div>
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Across the Pond, the recent US presidential election brought out an even darker side of humanity, and the divisions caused by Donald Trump’s racist campaign will take years to heal.</div>
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Scottish Labour stands against those who wish to divide us, and stands firmly against racism wherever it may be found.</div>
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Scotland has a proud record of tolerance, but we must never be complacent and pretend to ourselves that our nation is immune to racism and hatred.</div>
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Kezia Dugdale MSP,</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the </span><a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">STUC Website</a><span style="text-align: justify;"> or the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" style="text-align: justify;" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-36171822138695833332016-11-24T11:20:00.000+00:002016-11-24T11:20:11.178+00:00What’s it like Being Jewish in Scotland in your workplace?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-826VBDeCpOQ36vRExGt3VmeaC_lpmsoGoKhrRterTRQ6KdgAHWiE2cbkCKvVlJYK3jLqzPGBI23HELK6NqrA9SK0Xa7eKDX-p1RUrR8tJwMxXLC9DzSfPAlTObq6bi9F48rPuwSD3kk5/s1600/Ephraim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-826VBDeCpOQ36vRExGt3VmeaC_lpmsoGoKhrRterTRQ6KdgAHWiE2cbkCKvVlJYK3jLqzPGBI23HELK6NqrA9SK0Xa7eKDX-p1RUrR8tJwMxXLC9DzSfPAlTObq6bi9F48rPuwSD3kk5/s1600/Ephraim.jpg" /></a><br />
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A few years ago, at one of the social events SCoJeC runs in all parts of Scotland, a young mother told us that when her daughter was being taunted by other children that <i>“you killed Christ”</i>, she did what any mother would do and went to discuss it with the teacher; the teacher’s response was, <i>“What are you complaining about? – you did!”</i> The dean of a medical school told a Jewish student that if she persisted in observing Shabbat they would <i>“think twice about taking people with your kind of name”</i>, and a six-former who was given a shower cap as a gift was told that the “joke” was that it was to wear in the gas chamber.</div>
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These stories so horrified the Scottish Government Community Safety Unit that they wanted to know just how typical these experiences are, and they commissioned our inquiry into <a href="http://www.scojec.org/bjis_findings.html" target="_blank">“Being Jewish in Scotland”</a>, which reported in 2012. We traveled round the country, collecting personal stories and giving Jewish people an opportunity to feel a sense of belonging, often for the very first time, and although there were concerns about grotesque parodies of religious beliefs and practices being peddled in schools, discrimination and abuse in universities, and the lack of culturally sensitive welfare provision, in general Jewish people felt they were <i>“lucky to be Scottish and Jewish. I wouldn’t change either if I had to be born again”.</i></div>
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Sadly, that changed barely a year later. During one month in August 2014, we received almost as many reports of antisemitic incidents as we had in the whole of the previous year. Last year, a Jewish health worker told us, <i>“I’m scared to tell people at work that I’m Jewish – I talk about going to church instead of synagogue”</i>. Two young mothers in Edinburgh told us they no longer allow their children to walk to synagogue, or to speak Hebrew in the street. So many Jewish people said that they felt uncomfortable, anxious and even afraid to go about their day-to-day activities that the Scottish Government asked us to carry out a second study of how the experience of Being Jewish in Scotland had changed.</div>
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This time the<a href="http://www.scojec.org/bjis2_findings.html" target="_blank"> findings</a> were extremely sobering: no fewer than 10% of respondents could not think of anything at all good about being Jewish in Scotland. 17% said they <i>“considered it risky to show my Jewish identity in public”</i>. Some had changed their conduct to avoid Jewish gatherings including synagogue services, or for the first time had <i>“seriously talked about an exit strategy for leaving Scotland.”</i> This inquiry was dominated by expressions of insecurity and alienation, and 80% attributed this to attitudes to events in the Middle East. Most tellingly, the person who said in 2012 that <i>“Scotland’s a darn fine place to be a Jew”</i> now told us “<i>I feel alienated – no longer Scottish first then Jewish; I feel Jewish only.”</i></div>
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The Scottish Government is taking these concerns seriously, and is supporting SCoJeC’s work to ensure that Jewish people in Scotland feel safe, supported, and well integrated. The First Minister told a packed communal meeting that <i>"I don't want to be the First Minister, or even live in, a country where Jewish people want to leave or hide their identity"</i>, and she repeated that statement publicly at a national conference on hate crime. </div>
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Scottish Jews are here to stay, and the Scottish Government is working with us to overcome their feelings of negativity and alienation. Can everyone say the same? Is your own workplace<i> “a darn fine place to be a Jew”</i>?</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 110%;">Ephraim Borowski<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 110%;">Director,</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 110%;"><b>Scottish
Council of Jewish Communities</b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 110%;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the </span><a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;" target="_blank">STUC Website</a><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small; line-height: normal;"> or the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></span></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-69756134323039237902016-11-23T16:06:00.000+00:002016-11-23T16:06:04.064+00:00The racist tide will only be driven back by anti-racists standing up and confronting it- Talat Ahmed, Stand Up to Racism, Scotland<br />
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A racist offensive is sweeping Europe, with governments and the right-wing media using migrants, refugees and Muslims as scapegoats for an economic crisis and wars they did not create.</div>
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The recent demolition of the refugee camp in Calais is just the latest example of a grotesque society that demonizes the victims of war and persecution. Despite this, thousands of people including around three hundred unaccompanied minors are stranded in Calais. Some of these children have been faced with the trauma of seeing their temporary homes destroyed – by fire or demolition.</div>
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Volunteers in Calais report that there are a number of unaccompanied children without access to shelter, regular food and water as a result of aid agencies being prevented from carrying out distributions in the camp.</div>
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It is unacceptable that children are being put at risk by the destruction of the camp.</div>
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Home Secretary Amber Rudd should act to safeguard the children evicted from the camp by bringing them safely to Britain under the Dubs Amendment; the French government should halt the demolition of the camp and allow aid agencies to distribute humanitarian aid.</div>
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The racist tide will only be driven back by anti- racists standing up and confronting it. From Germany to Greece to the USA, people who want a society free from racism are saying no more. People are taking to the streets in large numbers to oppose racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and to say migrants and refugees are welcome here.</div>
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This is why Stand up to Racism fully supports the STUC St Andrew’s Day Anti-Racism March and Rally. Trade unionists, students, people of all faiths and none, migrants, musicians, refugees, pensioners and parents, will march to make a defiant stand against racism.</div>
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We are the majority and we will stand up to racism.<br />
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<b>Talat Ahmed</b><br />
Stand up to Racism, Scotland</div>
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<o:p>For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the <a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" target="_blank">STUC Website</a> or the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></o:p></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-6884459672431635032016-11-22T16:16:00.000+00:002016-11-23T16:13:50.995+00:00Behind the rhetoric and the negotiating positions, we cannot forget that there are real people- Vonnie Sandlan, NUS Scotland President<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRKvZVa-zN-TqCSSZwVLhSgLo6Wunp9MyqCPnKI7Sa7KOVOATD6OJgJNgBoRSupS2B0KYpvDHQsA3uxgOyxkezVOTMTo-WNLtR_xR8ls9eqQmcueX1K6cAsASxsGH55OWnmkg3Bdpajds/s1600/Vonnie+Sandlan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRKvZVa-zN-TqCSSZwVLhSgLo6Wunp9MyqCPnKI7Sa7KOVOATD6OJgJNgBoRSupS2B0KYpvDHQsA3uxgOyxkezVOTMTo-WNLtR_xR8ls9eqQmcueX1K6cAsASxsGH55OWnmkg3Bdpajds/s200/Vonnie+Sandlan.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">NUS Scotland are proud to support STUC’s St Andrew's Day March. St Andrew’s Day gives us an important opportunity to show the strength of positive feeling that exists across our communities and country in standing up for those seeking a better life in Scotland. And perhaps in no year has that been more important. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The EU referendum has undoubtedly dominated the political sphere. But beneath the debates about timescales and negotiating positions we cannot forget that there are real people it has affected in a very real way: foreign nationals, living in Scotland and across the UK, who have faced an undoubted increase in horrific rhetoric, and even violence. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And if only it was rhetoric that stopped at the corridors of power – but it doesn’t. At times that rhetoric has started there. At Conservative party conference in September, we saw speakers falling over themselves to outdo the damaging and shameful speeches of whoever went before them, promising ever more damaging and shameful policies. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">NUS Scotland is proud to make an impassioned case for the thousands of staff and students from other EU countries, and the thousands more from right around the world, who contribute huge amounts to our campuses, communities and country. In return, the least they deserve is to be treated with respect – not monitored and reported on, or used as a bargaining chip or target to be met. Foreign nationals living in Scotland are more than just a number – they are our colleagues, lecturers, fellow students, and friends. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And it’s not just with Brexit that we need to take action, and make that demand for a more compassionate country that works towards a better world. With the refugee crisis growing, and the daily and horrifying reminders we see of those feeling war and persecution, to be met by a disgraceful response from sections of the media and some politicians, it’s vitally important we unite in opposing racism everywhere it rears its ugly head. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While the St Andrews Day March evidences the huge number of organisations and individuals campaigning against racism and fascism, it’s a disgrace that responsibility has been left solely to our activists while governments across the world turn their backs. I want to believe – as a society, a country, and a world – that we’re better than that. That’s why I’m so proud we’re able to stand with STUC at this time, ensuring we make that message loudly to those who need to hear, and who must act on it. </span></span></div>
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<o:p>For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the <a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" target="_blank">STUC Website</a> or the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></o:p></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-88853517128343802022016-11-21T16:57:00.000+00:002016-11-23T16:11:35.508+00:00Division and hate must not win- Willie Rennie, Scottish Liberal Democrats<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQXQ5GA8LmYfK_2DMFzhSkxKvLdWQFNmi_x7M9_H455U_Nwx0oH2oIzUk7JfVc4_hb-M7-UQDHPQY6XkwjLJdGOHZMOpsu5RJngd-Ld5pNdZQ8QPZY1nwKVISxBnU7f59fIQJsUeeeTcPG/s1600/WillieRennieMSP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQXQ5GA8LmYfK_2DMFzhSkxKvLdWQFNmi_x7M9_H455U_Nwx0oH2oIzUk7JfVc4_hb-M7-UQDHPQY6XkwjLJdGOHZMOpsu5RJngd-Ld5pNdZQ8QPZY1nwKVISxBnU7f59fIQJsUeeeTcPG/s1600/WillieRennieMSP.JPG" /></a>We have made real progress in tackling racism in our society in recent years. The STUC and other groups have been at the forefront of efforts to curb racism and they deserve credit for their hard work. But the aftermath of the EU referendum shows that there is still a huge amount of work to be done if we are to tackle racism across the UK. </div>
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Scotland and the UK have proud tradition as safe havens for those fleeing persecution that dates as far back as the 16th century. It makes me angry that this tradition is now under threat. </div>
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The response from some media outlets questioning the age of children who are coming to the UK as refugees is the latest immigration storm. We should make no mistake. What we are facing here is little more than thinly veiled racism. </div>
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It is down to all of us who reject racist rhetoric to make the case for the UK meeting our international humanitarian obligations. We must work together to ensure that our country is open, tolerant and united. Division and hate must not win. </div>
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Education is key to eradicating the scourge of racism from our streets, from our schools and workplaces. This march is another opportunity to educate people and send a strong message that there is no place for racism anywhere in the UK.</div>
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I hope that those joining us on the march will take this message back to their own communities. When we hear racist abuse, we need to speak up.</div>
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Willie Rennie MSP</div>
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<b>Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats</b><br />
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For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the <a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" target="_blank">STUC Website</a> or the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a><i><span style="mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #2E75B6;"><span style="color: #2e75b6;"> </span></span></i></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-12288448293648796662016-11-18T13:25:00.000+00:002016-11-20T18:26:42.551+00:00We must be unselfconscious about defending the values we share- Ruth Davidson, Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hKQbgKZzho_HsBjwSvV_7bzBPDiq-8wcbnPyRifSC73P2IXbknwaEwXoGNhGZn5fMFX0Oee5OwqL0gax95y-Xa7uhJvmCALBxFGlJNvwr-J1zQi9c6T1DayrdW93c-VlroQgsT3iovGy/s1600/RuthDavidsonMSP.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3hKQbgKZzho_HsBjwSvV_7bzBPDiq-8wcbnPyRifSC73P2IXbknwaEwXoGNhGZn5fMFX0Oee5OwqL0gax95y-Xa7uhJvmCALBxFGlJNvwr-J1zQi9c6T1DayrdW93c-VlroQgsT3iovGy/s1600/RuthDavidsonMSP.JPG" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Scotland’s cultural and racial diversity continues to be one
of our nation’s great assets. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We have a reputation as an open, tolerant and welcoming
society – one that values all people, no matter their colour, creed, gender or
sexual orientation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Those of us who believe in this vision cannot shy away from
championing it. We must be unselfconscious about defending the values we share
and be steadfast in our commitment to seeing them upheld. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2016 has been a momentous year – for Scotland, the United
Kingdom and our friends and allies on both sides of the Atlantic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>However, there are constants even in
this period of flux. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rooting out prejudice is as important today as it ever has
been and we have a duty to further the message that whether prompted by skin
colour, religion or nationality, discrimination is completely unacceptable in
modern Scotland. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But we cannot be complacent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Across the country, our communities continue to be enriched
by those who have chosen to make this country their home. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And we are better for our acceptance of different faiths and
the protection we afford minorities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But we must be honest with ourselves too. There remain
hostile voices and backward glances. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead of wishing them away, we must challenge these views
directly; redoubling our efforts to root out prejudice and tackle abuse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s to the STUC’s enormous credit that the trade union
movement is in the vanguard of Scotland’s Anti-Racism movement. Once again, I’m
proud to offer this longstanding event my wholehearted support.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the </span><a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">STUC Website</a><span style="text-align: start;"> or the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-32222473445740694582016-11-17T16:07:00.003+00:002016-11-17T16:07:43.093+00:00We can make a change in society by refusing to be a bystander- Alastair Pringle, EHRC <br /><div>
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We haven't seen the same rise in reported incidents in Scotland as we have elsewhere following the vote to leave the EU, but that doesn't mean that people feel safe, or are not anxious about how people are viewing them in Scotland. Too many people still feel they have license to abuse their fellow citizens on racial or homophobic or other grounds. </div>
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We worked with the Scottish Government on the recently published Scottish Social Attitudes Survey which showed that negative attitudes towards some groups remain stubbornly entrenched, in particular for Gypsy/Travellers, people with mental health problems and transgender people. </div>
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However, it also showed significant improvements in attitudes towards gay, lesbian and bisexual people and showed that attitudes in general towards Scotland’s black and ethnic minority community remain positive. So we have made good progress, but clearly still have a long way to go. </div>
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We believe that part of the solution lies in understanding how best to challenge environments which are permissive of this sort of behaviour. The stark fact is that half of all reported hate crime incidents are committed by, and towards, young people.</div>
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Building confidence amongst young people, those who work with them and those who work in community settings, to tackle prejudice and discrimination wherever they see it is absolutely vital in tackling prejudice in Scotland. There is also a need to examine current evidence to see what is currently working, before we try to reinvent the wheel elsewhere. </div>
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This is a responsibility for all of us. We all have a part to play, from the Scottish Government, to our schools, to our workplaces, to each of us as individuals. We can make a change in society by refusing to be a bystander, showing leadership by example and speaking up and being an active citizen. It is everyone’s business to make this a thing of the past.</div>
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Alastair Pringle</div>
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For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the <a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" target="_blank">STUC Website</a> or the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-64972934058863871152016-11-14T17:03:00.000+00:002016-11-14T17:04:56.844+00:00We must not be cowed by the successes of Trump or others- Patrick Harvie, Scottish Green Party<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjisogCtQ9EtgPBXvpC55yMIr89fAl8TGMEE9oXQU5vyYF_eZgYMcxJgHSpLJ-Qt3bvS_4TrGoAxumqRaWED1i6rE72AABlURhbh9yXkh4HvqvjzTGz1zQRRvQmWUZgkn_u_dilNZPa35IH/s1600/Patrick+Harvie.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjisogCtQ9EtgPBXvpC55yMIr89fAl8TGMEE9oXQU5vyYF_eZgYMcxJgHSpLJ-Qt3bvS_4TrGoAxumqRaWED1i6rE72AABlURhbh9yXkh4HvqvjzTGz1zQRRvQmWUZgkn_u_dilNZPa35IH/s1600/Patrick+Harvie.PNG" /></a>Scotland’s anti-racist movement comprises trade unions, voluntary organisations, community and religious groups, and political parties and many other activists. Working together, that movement has built a long track record of defending communities, protecting people’s rights, and making the case for a strong, diverse and inclusive society. But this movement also knows that its work will never be complete – we will always have more work to do if we’re determined to safeguard what’s already been achieved, and tackle the prejudice and hatred which still exists.</div>
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Now, with the racist far right undergoing a resurgence, that determination must be stronger than ever. Donald Trump’s election in the US has not only exposed his own personal racism; it has been brought about with the explicit support of white supremacists old and new. Across Europe we see the far right gaining ground, and in the coming months we must stand together with those opposing it in Austria, the Netherlands, France and many other countries. </div>
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And in this country, the Brexit campaign unleashed hatred, prejudice and intolerance at a frightening level, making those who harbour racist views feel legitimised. The result of the referendum threatens to undermine those bonds of solidarity and common action on human rights and equality which an internationalist anti-racist movement must be based on. </div>
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We must not relent. We must not be cowed by the successes of Trump or others. Above all, we must not treat them as a normal and legitimate part of the political process. The St Andrew’s Day march and rally gives us an annual opportunity to recommit ourselves to our shared task, not merely to oppose racism but to inspire in our fellow citizens a mutual understanding, respect and celebration which racism can never overcome.</div>
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Patrick Harvie, MSP</div>
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<b>Co-Convenor Scottish Green Party</b></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the </span><a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">STUC Website</a><span style="text-align: start;"> or the </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-66827747862744734772016-11-11T15:30:00.000+00:002016-11-14T16:13:08.676+00:00St Andrew's Day is Our Day- Let's Use it to March Against Racism <div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The STUC Black Workers’ Committee is once again proud to be at the centre of organising the 2016 St Andrew's Day March and Rally against racism and fascism. We encourage you, your friends and your families to all participate this year and contribute to making it another successful event.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is worth taking a few moments to reflect on the origins of this event, since the reasons why it originally took place are as relevant today as they were the very first time we marched. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The March and Rally began in 1989 as a counter-demonstration against the British National Party, who tried to defile Scotland’s national day by claiming it to peddle their hatred. A broad coalition of trade union and community groups rightly decided that there was no place in Scotland for racists and fascists. A counter demonstration was quickly organised. One that successfully dwarfed and overshadowed the efforts of the British National Party. Recognising that Scotland needed to be continually vigilant to the far-right in all its guises, the STUC has been involved in organising the St Andrew's Day event each year since. Over ensuing decades the STUC Black Workers’ Committee has been pivotal in making sure that the St Andrew's Day event has remained a positive focus for community cohesion, a vehicle for welcoming the diversity of all of Scotland’s citizens and for celebrating our shared humanity. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Since then, by organising and taking to the streets each year, wonderfully supported by an enviable range of like minded groups, we have prevented further efforts from the far right British Nationalist Party and the English/Scottish Defence Leagues from getting a foothold in Scotland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Unfortunately the rise in racism and xenophobia resulting from the EU Referendum here in the UK and more from the US Presidential election campaign further afield has made the St Andrew's Day event especially relevant in 2016. Frustratingly and perversely, democracy seems to be promoting division, bigotry and prejudice instead of unity and acceptance. In too many instances, what was in 2015, the most unacceptable and offensive racist language has become overt and normalised in 2016. Hate crime is clearly more prevalent - here in Scotland as well as in the rest of the UK. The right wing media have become more bold with their extreme and all too often abhorrent views on EU and non-EU nationals alike, propagating myths and lies on migrants and migration. An unpleasant climate of intolerance is undoing so much of our good work and taking us backwards.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The STUC commends the leadership shown by the highest levels in Scottish Government, who always stand shoulder to shoulder with the trade unions to condemn racism and hate crime. Unfortunately Government leaders elsewhere in the UK are, at best slow with their condemnation, and sadly in too many cases are contributory parties. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All of these are compelling reasons for firmly uniting to challenge the divisive developments of 2016. We have successfully countered this before and we must do so again. Each year and every year until we have consigned racism and fascism to history. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">St Andrew's Day is our day. A day which celebrates Scotland as the nation that we would all wish it to be - united, welcoming, accepting and thriving because of our rich and varied communities. In our Scotland there will never be any place for racism and fascism.</span></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">Satnam Ner</b></b></div>
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</b><span style="font-family: inherit;">STUC Vice-President,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">STUC Black Workers' Committee and </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Prospect </span><br />
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<o:p>For details of the St Andrew's Day Anti-Racism March see the <a href="http://www.stuc.org.uk/campaigns-and-external-events/st-andrews-day-2016" target="_blank">STUC Website</a> or the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/St-Andrews-Day-Anti-Racism-Weekend-447077975413141/" target="_blank">St Andrew's Day Facebook Page</a></o:p></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-35294217694758388012016-10-06T14:18:00.004+01:002016-10-06T14:18:52.348+01:00National Work Life Week Scotland Conference 2016<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The STUC Women’s
Committee has campaigned for years for family friendly workplaces. W</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">e all know the
crucial role carers in Scotland play in the labour force. The majority of
these carers are women so it’s a subject that is very dear to the hearts of the
women we represent. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Despite the legislation there are still very few employers embracing the
principle of family friendly working. Too many simply pay lip service to it
whilst actively discouraging flexible working requests and providing a variety
of spurious reasons to decline them. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This affects our performance in the workplace, the opportunities
available to us for promotion, our health and wellbeing and most of all our
family life. That’s why it’s one of the many topics we’ll be debating at the
STUC Women’s Conference in Perth at the end of October. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">We are therefore delighted to be working with
Family Friendly Working Scotland (FFWS) on tackling the many barriers women in
particular face in the pursuit of a work-life balance. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Family Friendly Working Scotland was set up in
2014 with funding and support from the Scottish Government. As part of National
Work Life Week, FFWS are holding a conference in Glasgow on Thursday 6 October
which the STUC Women’s Committee fully supports. I will be attending with a
colleague from the Women’s Committee, Joyce Stephenson from CWU. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The event is an opportunity to discuss the many different aspects of
family friendly working and the benefits they bring. It also covers practical
ideas for employers to take this forward in their organisations, how the
different policies work in practice and how FFWS can help support employers to
make Scotland a family friendly place to work. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The STUC Women’s
Committee and FFWS aim to follow this up with a </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">joint event which looks at flexible working approaches for non-standard
working patterns. We will keep you updated on how this is progressing and hope
that as many trade union women as possible can attend this event. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://familyfriendlyworkingscotland.org.uk/national-work-life-week-scotland-conference/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span><span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://familyfriendlyworkingscotland.org.uk/national-work-life-week-scotland-conference/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span><span style="color: #262626; text-decoration: none;">Visit the National Work Life Week Scotland Conference 2016 web site here</span></span></span></span></a><span id="goog_1500051837"></span><span id="goog_1500051838"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="color: #262626; mso-bidi-font-family: Times; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-48146565968906778432016-08-12T15:08:00.001+01:002016-08-12T15:08:53.156+01:00EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL – labour movement and James Connolly<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">James Connolly’s life as a trade unionist and socialist
activist in Edinburgh and Leith is the theme of a morning of readings, songs
and commentary at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. It takes place
at <b>11.00 a.m. on Saturday 20 August</b> in
the International Festival centre, The Hub, at the head of the Royal Mile, near
the Edinburgh Castle esplanade.</span></span><br />
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<br /></div>
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</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The union sponsorship making the event possible has been
co-ordinated by Edinburgh Trades Union Council, which since the International
Festival began in 1947, has nominated a member of the Festival Council. The
current nominee is Terry Brotherstone, UCU, who is also co-ordinator of a group
of trade unionists interested in increasing active union involvement with this
major international event, and greater participation of trade unionists and
their families in the cultural experiences it makes possible.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 2014 a union-sponsored lecture and discussion on War
Reporting – in a Festival that commemorated the beginning of World War I – featured
NUJ members Lyse Doucet and Orla Guerin and was widely acclaimed. The year
before Paul Mason, also an NUJ member – in a Festival programme concerned with
the arts and technology – made a presentation on the role of new technologies
in international protest movements.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A number of unions, or union branches, have contributed to
make this initiative possible: they include EIS and EIS/ULA, Equity, the
Musicians Union, the National Union of Journalists, Prospect, TESSA, Unison,
Unite and the University and College Union Scotland.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This year’s event – featuring Scottish performers –
recognises the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, following which Connolly
was executed in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin. But it starts from his birth, in
1868, in Edinburgh’s Cowgate; focuses on his time in Edinburgh, where he lived for
longer than in any other single place; and reflects on the fact that it was in
Scotland’s capital and in working-class Leith that he became a dedicated trade
unionist and revolutionary socialist.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The event sold out quickly but additional tickets (at £6)
were released at the end of July by The Hub booking office, Castlehill,
Edinburgh, EH1 2NE; online:<a href="http://www.eif.co.uk/" target="_blank"> www.eif.co.uk</a> telephone:
0131 473 2000</span></span>.</div>
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Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-25960957465200066342016-04-18T11:17:00.000+01:002016-04-18T11:17:28.618+01:00Scottish Parliament elections - Grahame Smith's speech to Congress<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Congress,
the election on 5 May is the most important to take place since the Scottish
Parliament was re-established. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The next
Scottish Government will wield new powers on tax, welfare, employment
programmes and Tribunals - powers with the potential to make a substantial,
positive difference to the lives of working people in Scotland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These new
powers broaden the canvas on which new, bold and progressive public policy can
be written. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The new Government
must break from the conservative mind-set that has afflicted successive
Holyrood administrations. The next Scottish Government really has to aspire to
more than just managerial competence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unfortunately,
the campaign going on around us doesn’t yet reflect the possibilities offered by
these new powers. In all the leaders’ debates, hustings and newspaper features
there has been nothing of substance said about economic development in
Scotland; no serious programme set out to reduce inequality; and the
increasingly precarious nature of employment has hardly rated a mention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is as if
the financial crisis, the consequent recession and the years of austerity and
stagnation which followed weren’t sufficiently painful to provoke new and
radical thinking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The General
Council statement before you today includes 10 key demands of the parties
contesting this election. If acted upon, these demands will lead to a fairer,
more resilient economy and a more equal and democratic society. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let me focus
on two of these.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The first is
tax. Much political wind has already been expended on this issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unfortunately,
the proposals we have heard so far have been generally weak and, in some cases,
they blatantly contradict the wider social and economic objectives they are
apparently designed to achieve. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tax policy
needs to be bolder and more creative – particularly from the parties of a
social democratic bent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We haven’t, as
yet, had an opportunity to study the SNP and Labour manifestos, but we have a
good idea what they’re likely to say about income tax and local taxation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To be fair,
Labour and the Lib Dems have signalled their intention to increase income tax
in an effort to mitigate the impact of public spending cuts, particularly those
forced on local authorities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The SNP’s
position, especially the pathetic excuses for refusing to increase the marginal
rate of tax on earnings over £150,000, is hugely disappointing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’ve said it
before and will say it again: the Nordic style society the SNP continually say
they aspire to, simply cannot be created and sustained on current levels of
taxation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The second
of our demands I’d draw attention to is on inequality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is
remarkable, and very encouraging, that reducing inequality has, over the last
few years, become a mainstream issue and has been given such prominence by the current
First Minister.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, it is
deeply disappointing that no Party has come close to presenting a credible,
coherent plan for reducing inequalities of income, wealth and power in
Scotland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Too often a
welcome focus on poverty reduction has been used as cover for refusing to take
action on runaway incomes at the top. An effective strategy must tackle
inequality from both ends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We need
bold, ambitious policies that addresses some hitherto intractable problems in
the Scottish economy and society, policies based on the evidence of what works
rather than their populist appeal or soundbite suitability. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In health, where
you live should not determine how long you will live. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How well you
do in school, college or university or in the world of work should be about your
ability and how hard you work, not your social class. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some of our
communities have not recovered decades after the loss of traditional
industries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Addressing
these longstanding issues should be the priority for our politicians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We should
expect nothing less of our political leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All of them
need to raise their game. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Current
levels of inequality weaken the economy, reduce societal cohesion and undermine
democracy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Panama
Papers have pulled back the curtain on the lives and attitudes of the wealthy
to reveal nothing but sneering contempt for their fellow citizens and the rules
by which any decent society must adhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The rich can
shift their wealth offshore and absolve themselves of any responsibility to
contribute to the society that allowed them to accrue that wealth in the first
place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And then, of
course, they invest that wealth in lobbying for a politics which is
increasingly hostile to any substantial redistribution and the role of unions
and collective bargaining in bringing that about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of course,
we won’t hear any talk of offshored wealth from the Tories contesting the
Scottish Parliament election – they’re too busy rebranding themselves as
cuddly, progressive sorts who have the best interests of Scotland’s workers at
heart. Aye right! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ruth
Davidson certainly presents a more convivial demeanour than George Osborne. Hardly
a difficult task! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But by
failing to seriously challenge austerity, welfare reform and the Trade Union
Bill she is entirely complicit in the UK Government’s attack on society’s most
vulnerable people, on workers and unions – and no amount of one-liners or photo
opps will conceal this inconvenient truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ultimately the
Tories attempted transition to the non-nasty party is almost as funny as the malicious
buffoons of UKIP in Scotland trying to masquerade as a serious political organisation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">During
Congress we will hear from the leaders of our two main parties. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We expect to
hear that they understand the real issues currently facing workers and their
communities;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that they are willing to use the knowledge and
experience of unions and their members to shape policy; and <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">that they have a vison for Scotland that matches
the ambition of its citizens for sustainable economic and social
progress. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
election should be a marker in the development of Scotland’s democracy. The
ability of the new Scottish Government to introduce policies in support of the
people we represent is about to be considerably strengthened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The demands
the General Council has set out today provide the template for a new Scotland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We need a
Government with the courage and passion to grasp the opportunity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let’s hope
such a Government is elected on 5 May.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Congress, I
commend the General Council statement to you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-84831628327514328692016-04-18T11:15:00.001+01:002016-04-18T11:15:45.418+01:00Trade Union Bill - Pauline Rourke, CWU speech to Congress on behalf of STUC General Council<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Congress,
Scotland’s trade union movement meets this week here in my home city of Dundee
to discuss and constructively debate a huge range of issues that affect the
lives of ordinary working people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The STUC is
Scotland’s largest and most progressive civic organization and I’m proud to be
part of it. The rights at work now taken for granted by so many are the result
of the industrial and political campaigns vigorously fought by our proud
forbears. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We are a
great civic movement, one that has helped create a better, more just society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Many may
quite legitimately disagree with our objectives and priorities and the policies
we will ultimately agree this week. But it takes a very particular and
malicious mind-set to perceive the men and women gathered here today as ‘the
enemy’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I’m afraid
that is precisely the mind-set from which the TU bill sprung. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When the
majority tory government came to office last May, the new business secretary
identified his immediate and defining priority to be an attack on trade union’s
ability to effectively represent working people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not how to
design and implement an effective industrial policy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not
defending steel jobs against Chinese dumping. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not
addressing appallingly weak productivity growth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not
strengthening historically weak wage growth or boosting low business
investment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">No, Said
Javid regarded an attack on trade union rights to be the single most important
issue for his department of business, innovation and skills to address. Has
there ever been a more outrageous example of a government getting its
priorities back to front? </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Congress, the Trade Union Bill is unnecessary,
unjustified and undemocratic.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The attack on facility time, on the political fund, on
the right to strike, are all attacks on the right of unions to speak out
against austerity; against low wages, to speak up for equality, for fairness in
the workplace and on international injustices.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Resisting this bill, as the General Council has done
and will continue to do, is not just
about defending trade union rights, it is about defending fundamental civil
liberties and human rights; rights that recognise that the democratic wellbeing
of our society demands that workers have a meaningful collective voice in the
workplace. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is our voice, in and out of the workplace, that
this Bill is intended to silence. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Tories have quite deliberately set out to tie
unions up in endless bureaucracy. Through a level of interference in our
activities that goes way beyond what is reasonable in any democracy, they will
severely restrict our ability to properly represent our members and to provide
an effective voice in the workplace and beyond.
</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">At the core of this is the right to strike.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Without the ability to strike, workers will have no
effective voice at work. They will be left with no alternative but to accept
the decisions of the employer, whatever the consequences. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">There will be no fairness or justice or democracy in
the workplace.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Congress, the General Council has led a dynamic and
successful campaign against the Trade Union Bill in Scotland.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have succeeded in uniting political and civil
society opposition to the Bill. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Scottish Government and a large number of local
councils, have not only publicly condemned the bill, but have pledged not to
cooperate with the legislation if it is eventually forced through. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Working with the Wales TUC we have exposed the
incompatibility of key provisions of the bill, including the attack on facility
time and check off, with devolved competencies which is likely to result in
these provisions not applying in Scotland and Wales. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We have also received pledges from the Scottish
Government, Scottish Labor and the Scottish Greens, that they will refuse to
implement any aspect of the bill that conflict with the duty on the Scottish
Parliament, enshrined in the Scotland act, to uphold international human rights
obligations. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I can assure this congress, that should any of our
unions be forced into a position where they have to defy the law in order to
effectively represent their members, they will have the General Council’s full
support and the support of the collective, organised Scottish trade union
movement, through the STUC. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We know that the most effective way to resist the
impact of the trade union bill, to mitigate the impact of austerity, and to
achieve economic and social progress is to continue to organise in our
workplaces and communities and to find new and innovative ways to engage with
non-unionised workers, particularly young workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is exactly what we are doing with through Better
than Zero; an increasingly successful campaign focused on the experiences of
young workers, run by young workers. A campaign that is demonstrating right
here right now that trade unions can make a tangible difference to the lives of
young workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that unions
are fighting and winning industrial disputes across the country: since congress
met last year Dundee hospital porters, Glasgow care workers, further education
lecturers, railway and ferry workers have all taken industrial action and won.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Congress, the Trade Union Bill is a wholly unwarranted
attack on the working people of this country. The General Council is resolute
in its opposition and stands ready to support and coordinate ongoing resistance
to this affront to democracy. I ask you to support this composite.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9217952869467434764.post-35178750288134909892016-04-12T15:26:00.001+01:002016-04-12T15:26:20.519+01:00It’s a funny old worldIt’s a funny old world when the Trades Union movement and the ancient House of Lords combine to defeat a reactionary Tory Government, not once, but three times!<br /><br />But that is what we did on 16th. March on the Trades Union Bill, which is attempting to shackle the Trades Union movement and slash TU funding of Labour in a way even Thatcher baulked at.<br /><br />This Bill, the brainchild of Cameron and Osborne, is being pushed relentlessly by the right wing ideologue, Nick Boles MP, and the hapless Baroness Neville-Rolfe who has no authority to make concessions in the Lords.<br /><br />So we have mounted one of the best coordinated assaults on a Bill I have ever seen. There has been unprecedented cooperation between the TUC, STUC and Labour Peers.<br /><br />At a meeting with Frances O’Grady she identified the key areas we should fight on as the threshold in strike ballots, political funds, facility time and check off.<br /><br />John Monks, Former TUC General Secretary, who made one of the most powerful speeches against the Bill at Second Reading suggested this strategy.<br /><br />We then established we had the support of the Liberal Democrats, thanks to the leadership on this of Ben Stoneham, formerly of the SDP.<br /><br />So we now had to work hard to get support from the Crossbench Peers who hold the balance of power in the Lords.<br /><br />This was done through a meticulous canvass, planned by the movement, to approach as many as possible to explain the arguments and seek their support.<br /><br />As an example, I worked closely with Karen Whitefield and Michael Wheeler of USDAW with a list of potential supportive Crossbenchers I had identified.<br /><br />The arguments were then made. Why is it possible to elect MPs, councillors, Police Commissioners with no threshold but there must be one for strike ballots. Why can there be electronic voting for the Tory candidate for Mayor of London but not for TU ballots?<br /><br />Why take action on the funding of Labour but not other parties as had been agreed previously. How can we have facility time elsewhere in Europe but not in the UK.<br /><br />The first success was when we defeated the Government and set up a special Select Committee, chaired by former top civil servant, Lord Burns, to look into political funds. This produced, as we had hoped a compromise proposal.<br /><br />But the master stroke came on 16th. March when we were due to vote on this and other amendments at Report Stage.<br /><br />Our Labour Bill Committee met and agreed the strategy put forward by John Mendelsohn. All the arguments had been made in Committee. We needed to get to the votes quickly so there would be no Labour speeches from either the Front or Backbenches. The Liberal Democrats went along with it.<br /><br />It had also been agreed that the key amendments would be moved by Crossbenchers. Lord Burns moved his Committee compromise on funding and another former head of the civil service, Bob Kerslake, moved the other two.<br /><br />The tactics were spectacularly successful. On the two Kerslake motions on Ballots and facility time we had majorities of 140 and 88 respectively. On the Burns amendment on funding it was 148, the largest Government defeat I have seen in the Lords.<br /><br />The second day of Report stage is on 19th. April when we debate and vote on Check off and we expect another victory then.<br /><br />So far the Government remain defiant in spite of these defeats and it is expected they will overturn them with their majority in the Commons, although Jeremy Corbyn has promised vigorous opposition.<br /><br />We will then have what is called “ping-pong” between the two Houses. This is when the Lords is expected to eventually give way to the elected Chamber where the Government claim they have a mandate.<br /><br />Usually the Crossbenchers cave in under this pressure of precedent. But with such huge majorities it is not certain this time and we can try to extract compromises.<br /><br />Foolishly the Government have imposed a deadline by announcing that the Queen’s Speech will be on 18th. March May so they must get their Bill through by the week before that.<br /><br />Now is the time for the STUC to redouble their already powerful opposition to this Bill and to put pressure on the Crossbench Peers to stand by the principles they so powerfully displayed last month.<br /><br />One thing is certain. Labour Peers will be there in large numbers to continue leading the opposition to this despicable measure. We defeated the Tories on their plan to cut child tax credits and showed that we can do it again when we think the Tory controlled Commons is wrong.<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong. I still want the Lords replaced by a Chamber with democratic authority, like the Senate of the Nations and Regions Labour proposed in our Manifesto<br /><br />But while the Lords exists and we can muster majorities to defeat repressive and regressive legislation we should continue to do so.<br /><b><br />George Foulkes<br />Former MP and MSP and GMB member</b><br /><br /><br /><br />Scottish Trades Union Congresshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00483469653791165776noreply@blogger.com0