ONLY 100% union membership can guarantee anything approaching a safe

working environment on the North Sea oil rigs and prevent another Piper

Alpha disaster, Mr Ronnie Webster, chairman of the Scottish TUC, claimed

yesterday.

Speaking in Aberdeen at the opening session of this year's congress,

he called for the election of independent safety committees with legal

powers to crack down on unsafe practices offshore.

He added: ''Nobody can say that had such legislation been in force the

Piper Alpha disaster would not have happened.

''But there is no doubt that more effective and rigorous policing of

offshore health and safety legislation will reduce fatalities and

injuries, and that a greater emphasis on health and safety at every

stage of the design process will also significantly minimise risk to

life.

''The hard fact is that to maintain safety standards costs money. And

in an era of unbridled pursuit of profit, things which cost companies

money tend to be unpopular.''

He said the Norwegians were now specifying that accommodation modules

should be on separate structures from production facilities. This would

obviously increase greatly the cost of developing an oil field.

''But had that provision existed at Piper Alpha it is certain that a

large number of lives would have been saved. We do indeed live in a sick

world when the cost of human lives is counted in pounds.

''It will be impossible to achieve anything approaching a safe working

environment offshore until we have 100% trade union membership. I think

the rig workers have heard that message loud and clear.''

Mr Webster went on to describe Government moves to privatise Scottish

schools via the opting out system as a shameful farce.

The Scottish Tories had stood on an election manifesto which precluded

any such moves, and with the honourable exceptions of Alick

Buchanan-Smith and Sir Hector Monro, ''they have now exposed themselves

as a bunch of unprincipled liars,'' he said.

But it was the poll tax above all which demonstrated Tory contempt for

democracy in Scotland. It had been imposed despite a massive rejection

by the Scottish people at the 1987 General Election.