Scottish union boss predicts strikes... who can blame her?

Economically, the SNP-Green government has presided over disaster, as have the Tories, and Labour is so desperate to get into power that it’s scared to vary much for the Conservative script, so who is left to speak out on behalf of ordinary citizens furious about the state of Scotland?

The only voice seems to be the trade union movement, specifically the firebrand leader of the STUC Roz Foyer. Ahead of the STUC congress in Dundee starting on Monday, Foyer has issued a rattling attack on all political parties, and hinted heavily at future strike action.

What she’s told me will make uncomfortable reading for some of the guests speaking at the congress: Humza Yousaf and Anas Sarwar.

I don’t often give over my column to another voice, but in this case, Foyer should pretty much have her say.

Scottish councils, Foyer told me, “stand on the brink of collapse. It’s maladministration on an industrial scale from central governments, both Scottish and UK, to have presided over such a drop in societal standards that local authorities can no longer provide the same standards of public services workers deserve”.

Amid a “housing emergency” and “brutal cuts”, Foyer says, “we’ve those in the SNP government heralding a council tax freeze which does little more than kick the can down the road”. It’s another “short-sighted, headline-chasing policy”.

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She urged the Scottish Government to “be honest with the electorate. Tell them that because of the Scottish Government’s own political inaction on reforming or replacing council tax, in addition to sitting on their hands when it came to wider reform of income tax powers, it means local authorities are scraping the barrel even more to make ends meet and cutting services as a result”.

Conservatives' “brutal, unrelenting austerity” has “squeezed people to the very brink”, while the party “demonises those with less and those they look down upon – the poor, the unemployed, migrants and minorities”.

Referring to anti-union laws, Foyer noted the irony of the UK Government “apparently defending the right to free speech” yet “oddly rather sensitive about allowing workers those very same freedoms to assemble and protest”.

While backing Labour for government at the UK election, Foyer said that in Keir Starmer’s “quest for electability”, he “cannot abandon, nor sacrifice at the altar, the founding principles of the party of the Labour movement just to get the keys to Number 10”.

She referred to the “spectre” of Peter Mandelson “urging Labour not to rush” when it came to workers’ rights. “Labour’s New Deal for Working People… must not be up for grabs”.

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Foyer added: “A ban on zero-hour contracts, employment rights from day one, Fair Pay Agreements to reverse the decades-long decline in collective bargaining and the repeal of the Tories' pernicious anti-strike laws – these measures represent the biggest expansion of workers’ rights in a generation.

“It’s a pledge that, in front of our very Congress one year ago, Angela Rayner proudly declared would be underway within the first 100 days of a Labour Government.”

Any improvement in the lives of ordinary people in Scotland, Foyer said, was down to unions “pushing every inch for the Scottish Government” to act. She vowed, though, that trade unions would not “feed off scraps”, and will start applying more pressure on the Scottish Government, as it did last year through a series of strike battles.

“It’s time the handbrake came off. If the First Minister is serious about reinforcing his progressive political credentials that we welcomed during his election campaign, workers can ill afford to wait any longer.”

She added: “I predict that as the full impact of austerity bites on the essential services our communities need, workers will increasingly take action to defend the services we provide.”

Unions will be “listening very carefully to the words of the First Minister” when he addresses the Congress on Monday.

“Workers don’t want to take strike action,” she said, but “strike action works… According to STUC research, over the past two years, it’s worked to the tune of £4 billion in workers’ pockets. What’s even more stark is that’s £3 billion more than what the bosses and the governments told us wasn’t available until we took action.”

Foyer added: “There is wealth in our economy. There is money in our society. Too often, it’s held by those at the top – the CEOs, hedge-fund managers, corporate directors and FTSE 100 gaffers. They are the people who have seen their incomes soar during a crisis.”

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She says that Monday’s Congress “will make it clear to those in power that, alongside the communities we serve, workers are fundamental, not incidental to the creation of a well-being economy and a good society.

“The starting point for this is our refusal to accept the denigration of our public services generally, or the continued chronic underfunding of our local authorities specifically”.

The Scottish Government has been warned. It seems clear the STUC is gearing up for more strike action unless it gets what it wants.