National trade union convention will focus on economic justice and political change
THE SCOTTISH TRADES UNION CONGRESS’ 119th annual convention will take place from 18 April and focus on the need to act for jobs, rights at work and wider equality at home and across the world.
Over 350 delegates from 36 affiliated unions and 22 trades union councils will join national and international political speakers to debate major issues facing the trade union movement at Dundee’s Caird Hall.
The STUC explained domestic issues for workers set to be discussed include “fair pay and the living wage, challenging austerity, zero hour contracts, the fair work convention and trade union rights”.
Trade unions in Scotland and across the UK are preparing to confront the threat to workers rights contained in the Tory anti-Trade Union Bill, with Scottish councils and campaigners planning to ignore any new law that restricts their right to organise.
Read: CommonSpace reports and analysis on the anti-Trade Union Bill
SNP and Scottish Labour hopes that the Scottish Parliament would refuse legislative consent to the Bill appear to have been dashed after the presiding officer, on the basis of legal advice, said legislative consent should be granted.
A mammoth 135 page preliminary agenda for the congress aims to cover a wide range of economic, media, transport, education, gender equality, refugee and international issues.
These included proposed motions on the oil price fall, strengthening manufacturing, land reform, a national journalism conference, a national film studio, ferry contracting, the Tie campaign, taxing the wealthy, a PS10 minimum wage, the Better than Zero campaign, threats to social security, justice for Sheku Bayoh, TTIP corporate pact, the EU referendum, support for refugees, the ‘prevent’ strategy, Trident nuclear weapons renewal, the arms trade, Palestine, Kurdistan, freedom of speech, and proportional representation.
The conference will take place three weeks before the election of a new Scottish Government.
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Picture courtesy of Poverty Alliance