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Unite Scotland Policy Conference: ‘We’ll fight union Bill tooth and nail’

First Minister Sturgeon pledges opposition to Tory suppression

FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon pledged to oppose the Trade Union Bill “tooth and nail” yesterday and promised trade unionists that her government would not co-operate with its strictures should it become law in Scotland.

Ms Sturgeon told delegates to Unite Scotland’s policy conference that she would continue to fight for the devolution of “powers over trade union and employment law” to Holyrood but would not implement the Bill, and would “never employ agency workers to undermine a strike.”

Ms Sturgeon set out a vision in which trade unions were “partners for progress” rather than “enemies,” as the Tory government sees them.

But addressing the same conference, Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale accused the SNP of “sitting on their hands” in the face of the looming Bill.

Last month Scottish Labour and the SNP sought to derail the Bill by securing a legislative consent motion that would allow Holyrood to block the Bill, but this route was ruled out by the presiding officer.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay has since lodged a motion seeking to find out what rule changes would be required to amend procedures so that the Scottish Parliament could seek again to block the Bill.

Ms Dugdale branded it a “disgrace” that not a single SNP MSP had joined Scottish Labour in signing this motion and vowed that Scottish Labour would “stand shoulder to shoulder” with workers and trade unions in opposing the “outrageous attack on our right to organise.”

Ms Dugdale also attacked the Scottish government’s “scandalous” behaviour in giving blacklisting companies public contracts and rejecting Labour’s calls for an inquiry.

She promised a Scottish Labour government would launch a “full inquiry” into the blacklisting scandal, adding that it was “no use” simply banning companies found to have blacklisted in the last three years as thousands of cases pre-dated the Scottish government’s cut-off point.

Ms Dugdale warned that it was difficult for workers to prove cases of blacklisting when many are employed through agencies and she promised that Scottish Labour would ensure blacklisting companies hire previously blacklisted workers.

Ms Dugdale added that Scottish Labour must change from the party which “failed to challenge the Establishment” during last May’s general election and become “the messenger that hands Tory austerity its eviction notice.”

The Trade Union Bill is due to be debated in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly this week.

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