STRIKING rail workers are resisting attempts to “break the back of our movement and our class” and need solidarity, the next generation of Scottish trade unionists have demanded.

A resolution adopted by the 82nd annual STUC youth conference last weekend slammed “wage suppression, the stripping of terms and conditions, robbery of pensions and threats of compulsory redundancy” across Network Rail and train operating companies.

The event, which saw young workers representing 12 trade unions north of the border meet in Glasgow, heard calls for the union confederation’s youth committee to develop a strategy for maximising young people’s involvement in current struggles. 

The urgent need to “build on industrial disputes with an angry mass movement” was also stressed by STUC general secretary Roz Foyer in her keynote speech.

Resolutions on mental health, the cost of living, apprenticeships, technology and automation, sexual harassment and violence, refugee solidarity and climate justice were discussed.

The need for the union movement to stamp out “cultures of reaction” from within its own ranks was also emphasised.