It’s been almost 15 years in the making but, in 10 days, the British people will have put a Conservative Government out of office and out of power.
Unsurprisingly, the trade union movement is staunchly anti-Tory. That of course doesn’t mean that every union throughout Scotland is a card-carrying, Labour-affiliated organisation that cowers to the call of the party hierarchy. Far from it.
At the risk of repeating myself, the STUC is non-party affiliated. Despite what some deeply misguided accounts on X accuse me of, the STUC doesn’t fund the Labour Party. Some of our affiliates do. Some of our affiliates do not. As is their right. But we don’t. On the contrary, there is a mythology that needs to be dispelled; if readers of this column think that unions just follow blindly the cause of politicians because of their red, or any other colour of a rosette, I have some magic beans to sell you.
One of the UK’s largest unions, Unite the Union, is one of the biggest donors to the Labour Party. But it would be a stretch in the extreme, if not just a downright falsehood, to accuse them of being party apparatchiks that follow every command.
And with good reason. Unite, like other strong trade unions pushing for radical change, leads from the front; and invariably when that happens, the politicians ultimately follow.
Workers aren’t subservient. They’re the driving force for economic growth in this country. If the cost-of-living crisis has taught us anything, it’s that working people in their organised masses don’t clap gleefully for scraps from the table. When united, they provide a formidable opposition to those in power.
As such, Labour’s manifesto plan for a just transition, the move to net-zero and energy policy has come under serious scrutiny by Unite. So much so that, for this reason, plus others, Unite refused to endorse Labour’s manifesto.
That move will have made Labour Party HQ sit up and take notice.
If the party of workers is to stick true to its name, it should take notice of those workers fighting the hardest for their industry. This includes those currently working in oil and gas who could see their skillset utilised in the transition to a low-carbon economy. If we are committed to supporting those workers whilst simultaneously reducing our usage of fossil fuels, we need a coherent plan. We also need funding. Billions of it to be exact.
Until that is laid out on the table by politicians and governments, both Scottish and UK alike, workers reserve the right to hold them to account on their promises to the sector. With the future of the North Sea becoming a key election battleground for the SNP and Labour, workers cannot be caught in the middle of a political bunfight.
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Those who work within the sector deserve more than to be reduced to mere numbers by politicians trying to outmanoeuvre one another on the campaign trail about whose plans will make how many more workers redundant.
Like others, Unite has thrown down the gauntlet to the Labour Party and challenged them to step up for workers. As Sharon Graham, General Secretary of Unite, has said: “We need a concrete plan and serious investment. Unite has a plan to create 35,000 commensurate new energy transition jobs in Scotland by 2030. This will require investment of £6.6 billion over the next 6 years. That is the commitment we need to see if oil and gas workers are not going to be the coal miners of our generation. And until these new, green, well paid, skilled jobs are in place there must be no ban on oil and gas licences.”
Straight talking and straightforward? Certainly the former, that’s for sure.
No one is pretending, least of all Unite, that the journey to net zero will be easy, precisely because of the huge amounts of investment required. STUC research has shown that up to £4.5 billion of investment is still needed to build the domestic supply chain to reach the potential and promises of Scotwind. That’s why it was particularly disappointing to see the Labour Party roll back on their £28 billion climate change pledge.
There is work to be done then to convince the politicians to invest the billions needed to realise net zero. Just as importantly, you must bring the workforce with you. It’s why, as part of the campaign, union organisers have flooded key towns and cities – Aberdeen, Falkirk, Shetland, Bo’ness Peterhead and Grangemouth – getting backing for their calls. Namely: create 35,000 new energy transition jobs in Scotland by 2030; North Sea workers must not be left behind and Make Britain energy self-sufficient.
It’s in the town of Grangemouth where the first real test of the presumptive new UK Labour Government's commitment to a just transition will happen. The fight to ‘Keep Grangemouth Working’ rages on. The location may be different, but the goals remain the same as it does for those working in the North Sea. It is a fight, quite simply, we must not lose; workers within both sectors need security and clarity on the future of their jobs whilst working together to build a thriving energy sector that builds towards net-zero.
Whilst we’re seeing some results from this campaigning, with Sir Keir Starmer visiting Scotland numerous times to pledge that the HQ of Great British Energy will be located here, there is still much to achieve. A truly just transition needs money on the table. That includes commitments from the Scottish Government too. The STUC’s Mind the Gap report has shown that Scotland is the poor relation of the UK for jobs in the low carbon & renewable energy economy. Ministers in Holyrood have just as important a role to play as those within Westminster and above all else we need them to be working together on this.
There are challenges ahead, of that there is no doubt. What is key, especially for those vying for our votes, is to realise that the major litmus test of our time won’t be on the land; it’s in the North Sea.
Roz Foyer is the secretary general of the STUC
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