Wake up and get angry
Foyer Only working people banding together can stop this abuse of power
Scotland’s most senior trade union leader has accused the Tories of squandering public funds and keeping workers in poverty while hoarding their own wealth and allowing people to die.
Roz Foyer, general secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), attacked the Conservative government for its planned anti-strike laws and handling of the cost-of- living crisis and said it was now time for the working classes to “wake up and get angry”.
She said: “They partied while our people were out on the frontline during Covid, putting themselves and their families at risk.
“We’re now seeing really obscene abuse of power by some of the people at the very top of our government – you’ve got the Nadhim Zahawi situation, you’ve got Michelle Mone.
“The only thing that’s going to stop them getting away with it is when ordinary working people wake up and get angry and get together and do something about it.
“That’s what being part of the trade union movement is about – people coming together and exercising their power and fight back on some of this.”
Foyer was speaking ahead of a planned rally next week, where both SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar will join union leaders and members to call for an end to the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill, making its way through the Commons.
If passed, the law would make it mandatory for some public services to offer so-called minimum standards of service on days when their staff are on strike.
They include fire, ambulance, health, rail and other transport services, border secur it y and nuc lear decommissioning.
Foyer said: “It’s an absolute cheek of the Tory government to be talking about minimum standards because it is their austerity and the way they’ve depleted services, asset- stripped public services, sucking the profits out and giving those profits to their pals that has got us into the state we’re in.
“They are taking liberties while people are starving and literally freezing to death.”
She said the Scottish Government were also to blame for the state of public services because the chronic underinvestment in councils has left local authorities with few options but to reduce their services and staff ing numbers to cope with depleted funds over the last decade.
She added: “We do have a situation where the Scottish Government’s ability to spend on public services has been limited because of UK fiscal policy but that doesn’t completely absolve the Scottish Government.
“Our tax research showed it’s not a f ixed budget that the Scottish Government are dealing with.
“Under the current powers, they have the option to raise a further £3.2billion worth of revenue.
“They have a range of tax-raising powers. It’s not good enough to say, ‘ We wish we could do more.’”
There has been widespread condemnation of the Tories’ anti-strike proposals from opposition figures, as well as from some in the Conservatives who said it would demonise those who legally would have to work while their colleagues are on strike.
It comes at a time when trade union membership is thought to be on the rise in the last year, with areas of private companies becoming unionised for the first time, such as Apple and Amazon.
On Wednesday as many as 500,000 workers are set to strike in the biggest ever single day of industrial action the country has seen.
Foyer believes this is part of the reason why the Conservatives have launched such a blatant attack on the trade union movement and on workers’ rights.
She said:
“This last year we’ve started to see a rise in trade union membership across the private sector as well as the public sector.
“What the [Tories are] trying to do is use their old playbook – othering and vilifying trade unions.
“The best thing you can do to stay in power and stop people blaming you for the problems is get the ordinary workers to blame each other.
“They want to split working people and turn them against each other. How do you do that? You blame anyone you can find, for example, migrants, the trade unions…
“But, as we’ve seen, this time it’s not working. And the reason it’s not working is the same reason that teachers on the picket line are getting support like never before – we’re all going through it.
“The people driving past beeping at the picket lines in support have probably been on their own picket lines the week before.”
She warned that anti-strike laws will end up in court if they are passed by the UK Government and will directly impact on devolution and cause even more uproar from the Scottish Government ministers.
She demanded that the next UK Labour manifesto include devolution of employment law in Scotland to protect against any future Tory government laws which she believes would be detrimental to workers.
Foyer added: “As much as we look forward to, hopeful ly, a Labour government being elected as soon as possible at UK-level and a new deal for workers that reinstate a range of trade union and employment rights that the Tories are attacking, what we want to see is long- term security for high employment standards and fair work in Scotland.
“While you have the threat of a Tory government being able to get back in at UK level, you will never be able to guarantee that.
“That ’ s why we’d l ike to see employment law being devolved and I’d like to see that in the next UK Labour manifesto.”
Foyer said that the proposed antistrike laws could see Tory ministers set so-called minimum standards of service in devolved areas such as hea l th, educat ion and loca l government, which she argued should be for Scottish authorities and Holyrood ministers to decide.
Foyer said that recent and historic examples of Conservative politicians abusing their power to make themselves and their friends richer has also had an impact on the amount of money avai lable for public services and contributed to workers’ anger about their pay and conditions.