TUC CYMRU general secretary Shavanah Taj warned governments today that there is no point in talking about “fair work” while watching industries collapse and workers lose their jobs.

Ms Taj, delivering a solidarity address to the Scottish TUC from the Welsh labour movement, welcomed promises of fair work agreements in some sectors included in the Employment Rights Bill.

But she added: “Fair work alone isn’t going to help the workers at Grangemouth or Port Talbot. 

“I cannot stand in front of those workers and talk about fair work when they can’t see a future for themselves, when they can’t see an industrial strategy that is going to deliver good jobs.”

Ms Taj said the Bill needed to deliver “sweeping” change to the world of work, including establishing an effective right of unions to organise in workplaces.

She called for private profit to be taken out of public services, condemned the British government’s “cruel” attacks on disabled people and warned the immiseration of working-class people was driving support for Reform UK.