The Transport and General Workers Union in Scotland has criticised
the lack of SNP policy on employment and workers’ rights ahead of the
Holyrood and local government elections in May.
The union cited a whole series of areas where it says SNP policy is
lacking, such as health and safety, the national minimum wage, trade
union rights, equality, employment conditions, training, and,
inequality within the workplace and pay.
Mike Brider, Scottish Secretary, said: “The
T&G will be urging our members to reject the narrow prism of
nationalism which only fosters a ‘them and us’ mentality. I find it
astonishing that when we hear the SNP advocate independence, not once
do we hear it in the context of workers’ rights and the employment
conditions of our members such as a ‘living wage’, health and safety,
trade union rights and addressing pay inequality.”
“As trade unionists, we should be working in solidarity to campaign
for the type of society and employment conditions we want to see for
all working people and their families throughout the UK. I believe the
policies of the SNP act as a clear danger to the progress that
continues to be made to the working conditions and rights of our
members with a Labour Government at Westminster working in partnership
with a Labour-led Scottish Executive although it is certainly not as
fast as we would like.”
The T&G also argued that the SNP policy of reducing corporation
tax below the UK level and removing business rates for 120,000 Scottish
companies reflected a “race to the bottom” approach, and stated that it
was a completely false prospectus to argue that these policies would
lead to “increasing employment opportunity as well as the quality,
terms and conditions of employment across Scotland”.
The T&G is soon to merge with Amicus to create a new union with
around 200,000 members in Scotland and two million throughout the UK
and Ireland.
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