SCOTLAND’S workers must organise to save jobs and fight exploitative bosses amid the coronavirus crisis, Richard Leonard will say today. 

The Scottish Labour leader will address delegates at the STUC’s virtual congress, praising key workers and branding them the “real wealth creators.”

Mr Leonard is expected to say that Scotland’s workers offer hope for a recovery from the public health and economic crises, telling those watching it is time the work of those on the front line was “recognised, respected and valued at its true worth.”

A promise will be made to continue to make this case in Holyrood, highlighting the role of Scottish Labour as a remedy to the tough times caused by the pandemic. 

He will say: “It is the role of our movement to offer hope over fear, to organise to save those jobs, and to fight back against those exploitative bosses and remind them that it is Scotland’s workers who are the real wealth creators in this country.”

Mr Leonard will also address the coronavirus pandemic, recognising there is a “very real sense of fear right now.”

He will say: “But there is a fear too of the economic devastation that it has unleashed, the joblessness it has created, and the jobs that could still be lost.

“There is a fear too of exploitative bosses who will take advantage of circumstances like these to attack hard-won pay, terms and conditions.”