GILLIAN MACKAY became the first Scottish Green leader to address the STUC today, pledging to do “all that we can to build a Scotland that is the best country it can be for workers.”

Opening her speech, Ms Mackay said her party had “campaigned alongside unions for years, because we know that the same powers which exploit our planet for profit have long exploited the workers too.”

Making common cause with delegates, she insisted: “Our movement campaigns for change for both people and planet, because if we get the transition to a green economy right, we make people’s lives better too. 

“Environmentalists and trade unionists both want the same thing and when we stand together we get results.”

Pledging to “stretch the limits of devolution,” she reiterated the Scottish Greens’ support for devolution of workers’ rights and pledged to make the billions of pounds handed out in Scottish government grants every year “conditional on all fair work criteria conditions being met.”

She stressed: “We want to work with you to revise and strengthen the Fair Work criteria, ensuring that the voice of workers isn’t just added on at the end, it is at the heart of our economy. 

“We want a genuine trade union voice on the board of every company that is getting significant public money. No trade union, no money.”

Turning to the STUC demand for replacement of regressive council tax, she added: “We support your call for a summit on finally getting rid of it. Let’s work together and get it scrapped for good.

“By working together, we can end the system that sees huge sums being poured into the tax-dodgers, asset-strippers and corporations of the world at the expense of workers and communities.”

In her final pitch to Scotland’s trade unionists ahead of May’s Holyrood election, she concluded: “With the cost of living soaring and the far right on the rise and desperate to whip up tensions, our future is on the line like never before.

“The months and years ahead will be crucial in shaping that future. The Scottish Greens will be standing right with you. 

“In our Parliament and in our communities we will be doing all that we can to build a Scotland that is the best country it can be for workers.”