Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:54 pm on 27 June 2024.
I remind members of my voluntary register of trade union interests.
I thank Marie McNair for once again lodging this motion for debate this year. It has become something of a custom for her to do so, and something of a custom for this debate to take place every year as one of the final acts on the final day of Parliament before we go into summer recess.
But a part of that custom is missing this year, because Bob Dickie is sadly no longer with us. One of the outstanding leaders of the remarkable and historic Upper Clyde Shipbuilders work-in, in the half a century that followed, Bob Dickie never gave up on either the conviction of his principles or the depth of his determination—and nowhere more so than in his tireless campaigning for truth and justice for asbestos and mesothelioma sufferers and their families. I am reminded of E P Thompson, who, on the passing of Raymond Williams, wrote:
“It is as if a fixed point in the landscape has suddenly dissolved.”
That is what it feels like for many of us today.
One of the certainties that Bob was so very clear about was this: we live in a class-based society. There is a class divide. We have an economic system based on the legalised right for those who own the wealth to exploit those who create the wealth in order to enrich themselves. One facet of this is the negligent exposure of working women and men to toxic hazards, to deadly risks, to killer diseases at work.
Mesothelioma is, by any measure, one of the most awful ways to die. Survival rates are poor—death follows quickly after diagnosis. That is why, next Friday, on action mesothelioma day, we will pay tribute to Action on Asbestos, to the Clydebank Asbestos Group and to all of those campaigners for all of the work they do all year round, but we will also remember our families, our friends, our comrades and all of those we have known who have been lost to this terrible disease. It is because of them that we keep fighting on.
And there remains much unfinished business. Most recently, we have seen the family of the late Robert Crozier being forced to challenge his former employer Scottish Power UK plc in court battle after court battle, despite having previously settled a damages claim for pleural plaques and asbestosis in 2014. So, despite accepting fault and admitting negligence, Scottish Power has been obstructing the claim of Robert Crozier’s immediate relatives to damages for the mesothelioma which he died of in 2018.
Just a few days ago, the inner house of the Court of Session under Lord Carloway refused Scottish Power’s latest appeal in this case. So I say to Scottish Power from the Scottish Parliament: why are you resisting? Stop serving the narrow interests of your shareholders and the insurance industry, and start serving the wider interests of your workers, their families and the ends of justice. And I say to the Scottish Government: get on with the Scottish Law Commission’s recommendation. Sweep away the single action rule once and for all, and stop leaving it up to families like the Croziers to take on a multinational corporation and an army of lawyers simply to get what they are due.
Finally, Presiding Officer, a week today, people will go to the polls. It will be a chance to overturn the culture of deregulation, to strengthen the rights of working people, to repeal anti-trade union laws and to extend the power of health and safety at work. That is what is at stake, and I hope it is a chance that people will seize.