Unions in Scotland have a chance to make sure the change in Westminster shifts attitudes in Holyrood, writes UNISON Scottish Secretary Lilian Macer.
Where does the recent General Election result leave trade unions? How can we best use these results to benefit workers? These are the questions that unions consider after every election regardless of what colours end up on the map of constituencies. The answer to the first question is straightforward – we are in a better place now than we were. However some may have limited faith in Keir Starmer to deliver change.
There can be no doubting that the removal of the Tories, fast becoming an existential threat to effective trade unionism, is a good thing. It is also the case that even if the chains that bind trade unions aren’t going to be removed, they will be loosened somewhat, which will give us greater scope to organise and deliver for members.
As to how we use the results – that’s best explained by taking a look at what happened and why. Compared to the last general election the SNP lost half a million votes and Labour’s vote was up by about 340,000. A variety of explanations have been offered for that. The one the senior ranks of SNP initially tried is that they were squeezed because this was a ‘Get the Tories Out’ election. This may be comforting – but it doesn’t seem to be very accurate. It leaves a six figure loss of SNP votes and, if correct, shows merely that the electorate no longer trust them to do that.
Different explanations have been voiced by those who lost their seats. They point to scandals and failures in government as being the reason they are seeking new employment. This is much more plausible. Devolved (Scottish Government) issues dominated the campaign. The first party leaders debate involved four party leaders (all male), none of them candidates (at that point), all of them MSPs, talking almost entirely about matters decided at Holyrood. Little changed throughout the election; debates and party pledges were dominated by Holyrood issues; the state of public services in general and particularly the wholly devolved NHS featured prominently.
This background is crucial. For trade unions the impact on the Scottish Government of the result is of far more consequence than the turnover in parliamentary personnel in Westminster. Whether they went out and voted for other parties, or, as seems likely more of them did, just stayed home, the SNP finds itself needing to build bridges with half a million voters. Many of those will doubtless be trade union members. Many others will have been passing judgement on the state of the services those union members provide. The scope to exert pressure the Scottish Government to deliver on their anti-austerity rhetoric has increased substantially. If they want the overlapping crises in public services they are going to have to get serious about raising the money to fund them, and obviously the people who deliver them, properly.
So far, when it comes to using their tax raising powers the Scottish government have barely dipped their toe in the water. It’s long past time they go for a swim. The scope to influence is about more than simply increased industrial muscle in the face of a government that is finding for the first time that its actions and track record are the issue rather than constitutional change. Unions have ideas about what needs to be done, and how issues can be resolved. There has been more creative thinking coming out of the trade union movement on improving public finances, the economy, tackling climate change, health, local government and social care, than we are seeing from the Scottish Government or the parties who oppose them.
Take social care for example. The Scottish Government announced they were going to create a National Care Service. This was, as was pointed out at STUC Congress, not a plan at all but “a press release that has grown out of control”. Since then we have seen a delayed and shambolic parliamentary process where parliament was expected to vote for proposals that had already been withdrawn and without sight of their replacements. The National Care (Scotland) Bill is at Stage 2 of its parliamentary process with the Scottish Government not only failing to publish their plans, but in key aspects unable even to explain them. Compare and contrast this with UNISON’s worked through plans in “Towards a Real National Care Service”. These plans outline how we can move away from the current model and towards a re-municipalised system which (unlike Scottish Government proposals) removes profit from care. Similar contrasts could be drawn in many other areas.
More superficially perhaps, opportunities exist simply because the Scottish Government are going to want to look better than a Labour government that no one is expecting to be the last word in radicalism. In this more challenging environment they will need to go beyond the all too frequent practice of being radical where powerless but timid where responsible. (How embarrassing would it be if Keir Starmer delivered sectoral bargaining in care before the Scottish Government, who have been dragging their heels on this for five years).
The ground has shifted in our favour. If there is one principle politicians never give up it is self preservation. For the moment the Scottish Government aren’t certain of theirs. This gives us an opportunity to shift debate about what could and should be happening. To push the Scottish Government further than they would otherwise go. We should take it.
Lilian Macer is UNISON’s Scottish Secretary and President of the Scottish Trades Union Congress.
