STUC Congress 2025: First Minister's speech - 28 April 2025

It’s a pleasure to be here today to address the STUC Congress and particularly to be able to do that for the first time as First Minister, on International Workers Day.

I recognize the significance of this day to the trade union movement and the enormous opportunity it is for me to be with you on this occasion. It's a pleasure to join you in the city of Dundee, a city that has faced and is facing the challenges of economic change and economic challenge, but doing so based on the strength of its people and the strength of the community that makes up the city.

And as I look back over the way in which Dundee has responded to the economic change of the last 40 years, I see a city, yes, that has faced enormous difficulties and challenge, but a city that has demonstrated formidable resolve, and part of that resolve has been based on the strength of the trade union movement here in the city of Dundee, acting to protect the wider economic and social interests of the members of trade unions and the community within the city of Dundee, and as a parliamentary representative for a constituency that just adjoins the city of Dundee, I've watched the way in which this city, and played my part in helping in that journey, to recover from economic difficulty and economic challenge.

And as we look around the city today, we see a number of see a number of examples of how the city is responding to that challenge, whether that's the establishment of the really good work that's been undertaken across a range of different organisations to repurpose the Michelin plant out in the east side of the city to make sure that it's a hive of entrepreneurial and innovative research activity, developing new processes and new opportunities with the new technologies or whether that's the transformation of the city by the waterfront development and the creation of the V&A, or the location by the Government of Social Security Scotland, bringing important public sector employment right here to the heart of the city of Dundee, or the stimulus that has been given to the economy by the development of the games industry over many years, with the utilisation of so much of the technological strength that comes From the University of Abertay and the University of Dundee.

So Dundee has been an example of a city that, yes, has faced economic challenge and economic transformation, but one that has rallied to those challenges, led by the constructive intervention of the trade union movement, and the city faces its challenges again just now with enormous uncertainty facing members of the university and colleges union and members of other unions who are employed at the University of Dundee, and I recognise the significant unease and anxiety that there will be within the employees of the University of Dundee - but let me take this opportunity right at the heart of the city and at the STUC Congress, to make it crystal clear that the Scottish government recognizes the economic significance of the University of Dundee to this City and to Scotland, the enormous academic and technical strength of the university, recognise the enormous connection between the university and our health service through the important research work undertaken on Life Sciences.

What the Scottish Government is doing at the present moment, and we are working very assertively on all of us, is making sure that the Scottish Funding Council and the University of Dundee are working together to develop a plan that will protect and secure the future of the University of Dundee, because we need to make that happen for the staff, for the students and for the community of Dundee. And I give you that solemn pledge the government will make sure that that is the focus of all we do to protect the University of Dundee.

As part of that work, we need to rely upon the engagement of all the employees within the university, and the strategic advisory task force that we've established, along with under the leadership officer Sir Alan Langlands, is determined to bring together the work of the city, the university, the government and our various organisations with the staff and the workforce to make sure that the University of Dundee is able to secure its future in the years to come. I'm optimistic that we will be

able to chart a course for the university that will secure that future and give the necessary confidence to the city that it deserves and requires. So as part of all of that, we rely upon the engagement of trade union representatives to support us in taking forward the agenda that addresses the difficulties that we face. And I want to thank this congress and this Scottish trade union movement for your unwavering commitment to ensure that the voice of workers is held within policy deeply in Scotland, and to commend the work that you take forward in advancing and protecting workers’ rights, fighting for better pay, fighting for safer workplaces, as we've just acknowledged in the STUC awards.

And through your efforts, the voices of Scotland's workers are shaping policy, informing the development of policy, and challenging injustice within our society. I want to thank all of you for bringing your ideas and your energy and your initiative to this movement and also to expand express my sincere thanks to the award winners today, Fiona, Jean, Steven, Gina and Sean Paul, who embodied that spirit of acting on behalf of the interests of workers and to ensure that the voice of workers shapes and in the way in which we keep forward policy in our country.

While we may not always agree, and I've always been involved in a number of discussions where we might not be on the same wavelength on certain questions, and certainly perhaps not on all questions of pay and policy, I want to say to Congress that I deeply value the partnership that exists between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Trade Union Congress, and I deeply value the engagement that takes place on an ongoing basis between our two organisations, we meet between the government and the STUC and its member unions twice a year to formally take stock of the issues that we are facing in the economy and to take stock of some of the challenges that we all face up to.

One of the recent issues that has dominated our thinking has been the pressure that is on all of us from the rise of far right ideologies and the threat that they pose to Scotland's democracy, our communities and the values that we hold dear. I understand there's a debate that you had at Congress this morning. I consider it to be absolutely vital that we remain united against extremism in all of its forms in our society today. And last week's gathering of political and civic leaders, including the STUC, was a powerful display of this unity and the necessity of taking action to protect the democratic values of our society. So I want to thank the STUC for the leadership that you have shown on this issue. You were the first organisation to welcome my announcement of a civic gathering to bring people together, and your contribution is so important and valued.

But in addition to my thanks, I need to also accept, at the outset, the obligation on me and the challenge on me from the STUC that my government must play its part in taking the necessary social and economic action to ensure that we address and deliver answers to the sentiments that allow the far right to gain ground. And that's a challenge that you fairly put to me, and it's a challenge that I accept. Because in our society today, we face sophisticated campaigns of misinformation designed to exploit the genuine economic and social concerns of working people, and the government has got a responsibility to deliver answers and solutions to those economic and social concerns within our society, and the trade union movement can play a part in ensuring that it is able to contribute to confronting those sources of misinformation, not only in our workplaces, but also in our communities.

And of course, that will also involve a range of challenging conversations and grassroots organisations. It will mean standing up for truth. It will mean standing up

for solidarity when it matters most in our communities. And I appreciate the work that's undertaken by trade councils for length and breadth of the country that support actual human cohesion, that work to welcome refugees and asylum seekers into our population, that try to prevent the circumstances upon which division can be shown or where intolerance and prejudice may be able to thrive.

So all of us in all of our movements, if we cherish and value the significance of cohesion of our communities, need to work together to make sure that those values are reflected in the decisions that we take and the actions that we bring forward. And I recognise that obligation of leadership on me as First Minister to ensure that is the case, and I invite you to work with me to ensure that Scotland is a country that will be able in the years to come to say that we successfully resisted the far right ideologies that are spreading increasingly around the world, and that we acted to protect the democratic characteristics and the democratic values that have served Scotland well and have brought our society to where it is today.

The STUC has always been, in part of that work, a crucial voice in promoting equality across Scottish society, in and out of the workplace. Your advocacy for Scotland’s LGBT community has been vital in driving the progress that we have made as a country. Let me take this opportunity to reaffirm my government’s commitment to LGBT rights, and specifically the rights of trans men and trans women in our society. I know that for trans people, there will be feelings

of enormous uncertainty and anxiety at this moment in time, but I am determined

to fulfil my obligation, which I took on when I became First Minister, that I will act as First Minister to protect the rights of everyone in Scotland today, and that includes workers.

Building on the new deal for workers is a powerful theme to rally behind at this Congress, and it's why my government welcomes the UK government's employment rights bill, the bill and the broader Make Work Pay programme align closely with the Fair Work agenda that's been taken forward by the Scottish Government. It reflects the approach that's been jointly formulated by the Scottish Trade Union Congress and The Scottish Government as we have worked together through the Fair Work convention in Scotland to advance the concept of fair work within the limitations and restrictions of the powers that we have within the Scottish Government, and it has the potential as a bill to finally help us to put some of the progress that we have made in Scotland on a voluntary and a collaborative basis, onto a statutory footing, which will, of course, enable us to resist any challenges to that agenda that may come from any governments in the future.

I believe that we have been effective in using the space and scope for joint collaboration between the Scottish Government and the STUC to advance many of these issues, and I look forward to cementing much of that activity in the period to come as we look to implement the Employment Rights bill and its legislation and to make sure it is reflected in the policy priorities that were taken forward by the Scottish Government. And we will continue to work closely with the STUC and other partners to ensure the bill delivers for Scotland's workers, and safeguards the principles of fair work that we have worked so hard to try to create in the relationship that we've taken forward in recent years.

As we focus on fairness here at home, we cannot ignore the global forces that shape our world and challenge the circumstances that we are experiencing. The conflicts

in Ukraine and in Gaza remain of enormous concern and significance to all of us who care about peace and reconciliation in our world. The courage and the determination of the Ukrainian people in defending the land and upholding democracy, freedom and human dignity, has been an inspiration to us all. We support the protection of Ukraine as a sovereign and independent country, and we remain committed to helping the refugees that have come to Scotland to make their contribution to our society.

And we share the deep concern of the trade union movement about the events in Gaza in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks by Hamas, unforgivable terrorist attacks by Hamas. But the events in Gaza and the suffering that has been experienced by the people of Palestine cannot be in any way, shape or form, acceptable in the world. So I take this opportunity to reapply the absolute determination of the Scottish Government to work with all interested parties to bring about a permanent and lasting, ceasefire in the Middle East, to design an approach which is the only way to guarantee peace in the Middle East, and that is why a two state solution that recognises the sovereignty and the independence of a Palestinian state, and that will be at heart of our quest for justice on the international agenda, we must resist all efforts to make the conflict in Gaza go on one minute longer than it has gone on today. We must ensure that peace is achieved and that peace is delivered for the people of Palestine.

Although we face enormous challenges with the far right ideology and the effect of the global uncertainty from war and conflict, we also face enormous uncertainty as a consequence of the global economic environment, which has changed so dramatically in the course of the last few weeks, with the debates and the decisions been made by the United States administration around tariffs and the effect that that's had on stability in the global economic context. And we have to respond to that. And we have to respond to that by making sure that we support the community in Scotland to come together, to make sure that we use every power at our

disposal to create the most dynamic economic agenda we can to improve the lives of people in our country. We have in place the measures and the steps that will give

economic and social hope to people in our country. We have to acknowledge the severe hardship that people have faced as a consequence of the pressures arising out of the financial crash in 2008, the advent of austerity, the disruption and the damage of COVID and the effect of inflation arising out of the invasion of Ukraine. All of these factors have come together to create huge economic stress that translates into real difficulty in the lives and the circumstances that your members will face around the country, and I'm aware of that as First Minister.

What I want to do is to make sure we construct a policy agenda that does all that we possibly can do within the powers and responsibilities that we have to address those root circumstances that are causing such difficulty to people in our communities.

That means giving families a better chance of paying the bills it means investing in health and social care, it means ensuring that young people can access employment and mental health support. It means building climate resilient communities and addressing housing emergency that we face in Scotland today.

So those are the priorities that lie right at the heart of my government's agenda, which is about eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency, and ensuring that we apply quality and sustainable public services within Scotland today, and those elements will feature in the program for government that I set out to Parliament on the sixth of May, a programme that I brought forward to give us the maximum opportunity to ensure that we deliver as much an effect as we can through the powers and responsibilities and the spending power that we have in the Scottish Government to improve the lives of individuals, so that people are facing less financial strain than they have been facing, that they see investment in their public services, that they see investment in the crucial public estate of our country to ensure that they have good prospects in the years to come.

And that involves investing in new elements of our economy. It means investing in renewable energy. It means investing in the skills that will be required to realise those enormous opportunities for our country. It means investing in some of the key elements of the economy that will create higher value employment and enable us to attain more of that value here within Scotland. It means working collaboratively to ensure that our public services are effective, that they are sustainable, that we maximise the utilisation of the resources that we have at our disposal to make as much of an impact as we can on the challenges that individuals face in our society.

So the agenda of the government is going to be focused, relentlessly, on eradicating child poverty, on growing the economy, of making sure that we make the transition to net zero and that we invest in our public services. The budget that was passed by Parliament in February of this year, I think, gives us that foundation to enable us to achieve those objectives by taking forward measures, for example, to lift the two child limit, to lift more children out of poverty than we are already doing through the actions on the Scottish child payment, or ensuring that we invest in the skills and training opportunities that are required to be the foundation for economic growth, or that we take forward the investment mechanisms that are required in the offshore energy sector, and that we make sure that in all areas of our public services, we are investing to ensure our services continue to meet the changing demands of the population as part of our approach to investment in the Scottish economy and our public services.

So that will be at the very heart of our agenda, and that's an agenda that has been significantly influenced by the contributions and the dialogue with the Scottish trade union Congress and I give you assurance that that will continue in the years to come.

Now, trade unions have a very wide role to play in our society, and that has been no more visible than on any other issue than the future of the Grangemouth refinery. And I want to express from this podium my thanks to Unite the Union for the sustained engagement we have had about trying to find a way forward that protects the future of the workers at the Grangemouth refinery. It is no secret that I believe the refinery has been closed prematurely, that we needed to take a course that would have secured the future for the refinery.

But what I want to assure you about today is that my government will be absolutely focused on working with the trade unions and with interested parties to ensure that the Grangemouth refineries and the various businesses at Grangemouth receive the support and the engagement of the Scottish Government to find a way forward that protects the skills and the employment that exists within that important resource. I want all options for Grangemouth’s future to be explored, and I will ensure that my government will work constructively with all partners to secure a just transition for Grangemouth, with the workforce, very much at the heart of that endeavour. And I want to make clear to you today the fact that as a consequence of all of this volatility that we are experiencing in the international environment, there is an ever more pressing need for there to be a greater focus on industrial intervention within Scotland, and within our industry.

We're facing global uncertainty without precedent, and the action that the United Kingdom Government took in Scunthorpe in the course of the last few weeks is a commendable example of the type of intervention we have to be prepared to be prepared to do in this context, but we must be prepared to do it on a wider scale than has been experienced up until now. So the should side of you today is that the Scottish Government will be willing to work with the United Kingdom Government to take the necessary steps to intervene in our industrial base, to secure the sustainability of that industrial base, because we cannot allow the industrial base of our country to be hollowed out. We need to secure our industrial base for security in the future of our country and my government will play its part with UK Government in enabling that to take its course.

What we also need to do is we need to recognize that the global economic uncertainty requires us all to revisit our priorities. That's why I'm bringing forward the Scottish Government's programme for government, from September to May, so that I can get the maximum opportunity to use the power of government to respond to the economic volatility that we've experienced. And that requires the UK Government also in my view to recognise the different economic landscape, to change the fiscal rules and to recognize that those fiscal rules are imprisonment and inhibiting our ability to respond to the challenges that we face. To work more closely with the European Union to develop the ability for us to be able to trade and to engage in greater degree of economic partnership with the European Union than has been the case up until now.

Crucially we need a stimulus to the economy to avoid the negative effects of the tariff debate, and the best way to do that is to reverse the increases in employers National Insurance contributions, because without that, I fear that the economic conditions in our country will be severely constrained as a consequence. So I make the call for us to be willing to revisit our priorities, and for us to be willing to revisit the importance of industrial intervention to safeguard the future of the Scottish economy.

One other strategic project that could provide us with the opportunity to safeguard the economic future of Scotland, and particularly the economic future of engagement, is for us to be able to get the green light on the Acorn carbon capture storage project and to begin the steps of ensuring proposition is developed to create new economic opportunities at the very heart of Scotland's industrial base, at Grangemouth. And the Scottish Government will make that case and continue to make that case with vigour to the United Kingdom Government.

We are facing as a country, as a consequence of the volatility in the economic in the economic environment. We've got to be able to respond to that in as effective a way as we possibly can. Some of the steps that I've set out here today will be at the Scottish Government response. But what will also be at the heart of the Scottish Government's response is the firm reliance on our partnership with the trade union movement that serve us well for all the time in the value of being in government.

So let me conclude my remarks by making it clear that what the Scottish Trade Union Congress will be able to rely upon is a partnership with the Scottish Government that enables us to work together on shared priorities, to advance the Fair Work Agenda, to ensure that we are focusing on creating higher value employment in the Scottish economy, that we are investing in people, that we are taking the steps to improve the standard of living and to ensure that we tackle the cost of living challenges are faced by so many of your members in Scotland today.

I think in the course of an incredibly difficult public finance environment, we have been able to find ways of working together to achieve those objectives. I give you the assurance today that my government will continue to work in that way, that we will face tough challenges in the public finances, but at the heart of our response to the public policy challenge, will be working in partnership with the STUC to ensure that we deliver for the people of Scotland, deliver the improvements in public services and clinical and economic opportunities, the improvements in the standard of living of people in Scotland - that will be at the heart of the partnership that we take forward between the Scottish Government and the STUC.