SCOTTISH Labour’s economy spokesman Daniel Johnson has found himself in hot water after a trade union leader blasted his “fawning” over an anti-trade union company.
The Edinburgh Southern MSP visited the Norwegian-owned Mowi plant, which is responsible for more than half of UK salmon exports, in Rosyth last week.
He stated on a video posted to his social media afterwards: “It’s been really fascinating to listen to how they have been investing, improving productivity through investment in the plant, and the focus on recruiting and retaining their people, ensuring that they have high levels of engagement.”
Talk of engagement with workers rang hollow with the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), which has repeatedly raised “very serious concerns about health and safety processes” at the Fife site.
The union has also been refused access to recruit among its 1,000-strong workforce and raise workers’ terms and conditions to those enjoyed in the company’s unionised workplaces in Norway.
BFAWU general secretary Sarah Woolley said: “This is a classic case of a politician fawning over a company while ignoring the plight of the workforce.
“Mowi has consistently refused our offer to meet to discuss how we could work constructively on a union recognition agreement and they have ignored the concerns of the workforce about working conditions and pay that contribute to them having such a high turnover of staff in their multinational workforce.
“Daniel Johnson as Labour’s economy spokesman has never once contacted the BFAWU to discuss our members’ experiences and concerns about this plant or any other issue for that matter but is willing to swallow the propaganda fed to him by the company.
“If he wants to hear about the real experience of workers in Rosyth and if Mowi Scotland are interested in working with us in the same way as we work constructively with other big companies, like Greggs and Warburtons, then we are only too willing to engage with them.
“But we will not sit back as politicians are being used to promote a very different version of the truth than the one our members at Mowi experience every day.”
A spokesperson for Mr Johnson said: “Trade union recognition was one of the topics discussed with Mowi on this visit.
“Scottish Labour is committed to supporting trade unions and improving pay and conditions in workplaces across the country, and Labour’s transformative New Deal for Working People will deliver the greatest transfer of power to working people in a generation.”
