CHALLENGES FOR THE SCOTTISH TUC

RMTnews :: june/july 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 14 Firstly, I wish to thank the union for nominating me on an annual basis over the last 15 years for the General Council of the Scottish Trade Union Congress. During this period I have tried to promote the union’s policies in line with AGM decisions amongst trade union colleagues in order to establish STUC policy. The last 12 months have been pretty hectic for me whilst acting as the vice-president and I look forward to the next 12 months with enthusiasm. I consider it an honour and privilege to be elected as STUC president for the next 12 months and I shall endeavour to articulate and promote the policies as laid down by Congress. When I chair the Congress in April 2008 in Inverness it will be exactly 25 years since the union had an STUC President. Members may recall that Andy Barr, the Divisional Officer of the former NUR from the East of Scotland District Council presided over Congress in 1983 in Rothesay. Coincidentally, this was my first STUC Congress as a delegate. The delegation, from memory, consisted of Charlie Gordon, Bob Green, Andy Ritchie, Andy Barr, Jock Bell, George Brechin, Bill Little and the newly elected General Secretary, Jimmy Knapp. Sadly some of those delegates are no longer with us. The NUR affiliation at that time was 14,920 members, and the Congress was represented by 76 unions and 47 Trade Councils. The total affiliated union membership then was 1,010,577. Currently the RMT- affiliated membership stands at 7,513 members. 2007 ELECTIONS The turnout at the election on May 3 was 51.8 per cent. In the Parliamentary Elections 2,016,978 Constituency votes were cast and 2,042,109 Regional votes cast. One of the main features of the election was the huge number of rejected ballot papers (almost 142,000). This was made up of 85,644 rejected Parliamentary Constituency votes and 56,247 regional votes, overall some seven per cent of the total votes cast. It was also reported that some 120,000 registered postal voters did not receive their postal ballots in sufficient time to cast their vote. Much of the confusion was caused because voters were asked for the first time to enter their choice for the regional list and for their constituency on a single ballot paper. The STUC raised these problems with the Scottish Office and we are supporting a detailed investigation into the election shambles. Following the election, the SNP won 47 seats, Labour 46, Conservatives 17, the Liberal Democrats 16 and the Greens two and there is one Independent. Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond was voted in as First Minister and has formed a minority government. It is difficult to predict what the policy priorities of a minority SNP Executive will be, as all legislation in line with the SNP manifesto commitment will require the co-operation of other parties if it is to go into the statute books. Of course, there is a range of non-legislative measures that can be applied without seeking the consent of the parliament, but these measures could well be thwarted if the opposition parties engineer a parliamentary vote against them. Alex Salmond, through the media, keeps talking about co- operation and consensus and he emphasised that he will seek support on a policy-by-policy basis across the parliamentary chamber. This, therefore, implies we are now in unchartered waters. CHALLENGES AHEAD As a result, this represents a CHALLENGES FOR THE SCOTTISH TUC New STUC president and RMT regional organiser Phil McGarry sets out the challenges facing the trade union movement in Scotland