Gary Smith said it was "hypocrisy" for Glasgow to host the showpiece when its own public realm was in a "terrible state of decay"
By Paul Hutcheon
Political Editor,
Daily Record
1 JUL 2021
1 JUL 2021
Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB trade union,
outside Glasgow City Chambers
A Scottish trade union leader has vowed to back strike action during the Glasgow COP26 climate change summit - saying the city is not fit to stage the event.
Gary Smith, newly-elected general secretary of the GMB, said it was “hypocrisy” for Glasgow to stage the event when the city is “crumbling” and streets are “filthy”.
In a hard-hitting interview with the Daily Record, Smith said: “The hypocrisy around this event coming to Glasgow is staggering. Glasgow has suffered huge cuts to public spending, the streets are filthy, the infrastructure is crumbling, the public realm is in a terrible state of decay.
“Working class communities around Glasgow have been absolutely abandoned by the [ SNP -run] council.”
He said: “We’ve got filthy streets and kids going to school hungry, and here we are welcoming the world to talk about this big new future. I am deeply uncomfortable with that. We don’t even have a publicly-owned, clean public transport system in Glasgow.”
He said strike action during COP26 would be up to local union members, but he insisted he would back it as general secretary, saying: “If our members say ‘enough is enough’ in the lead up to COP over cuts and over discrimination at work, this union will not be found wanting.
“The social and environmental issues in Glasgow would justify an industrial response.”
A Glasgow council source hit back: “Gary Smith knows nothing but utter disdain for Glasgow and Glaswegians and is now actively undermining the efforts of our workforce and his own members to keep this city clean.
"If he cared one jot about Glasgow he wouldn't be seeking to undo a generational opportunity with his Trumpian attitude to the changes every city across the world must make in the decade ahead.”
Smith, who hails from Edinburgh, was elected to lead a union that has around 600,000 members in the public and private sectors.
The 53 year old replaced Tim Roache, who resigned last year after a series of allegations were made against him, which he has denied.
A Scottish trade union leader has vowed to back strike action during the Glasgow COP26 climate change summit - saying the city is not fit to stage the event.
Gary Smith, newly-elected general secretary of the GMB, said it was “hypocrisy” for Glasgow to stage the event when the city is “crumbling” and streets are “filthy”.
In a hard-hitting interview with the Daily Record, Smith said: “The hypocrisy around this event coming to Glasgow is staggering. Glasgow has suffered huge cuts to public spending, the streets are filthy, the infrastructure is crumbling, the public realm is in a terrible state of decay.
“Working class communities around Glasgow have been absolutely abandoned by the [ SNP -run] council.”
He said: “We’ve got filthy streets and kids going to school hungry, and here we are welcoming the world to talk about this big new future. I am deeply uncomfortable with that. We don’t even have a publicly-owned, clean public transport system in Glasgow.”
He said strike action during COP26 would be up to local union members, but he insisted he would back it as general secretary, saying: “If our members say ‘enough is enough’ in the lead up to COP over cuts and over discrimination at work, this union will not be found wanting.
“The social and environmental issues in Glasgow would justify an industrial response.”
A Glasgow council source hit back: “Gary Smith knows nothing but utter disdain for Glasgow and Glaswegians and is now actively undermining the efforts of our workforce and his own members to keep this city clean.
"If he cared one jot about Glasgow he wouldn't be seeking to undo a generational opportunity with his Trumpian attitude to the changes every city across the world must make in the decade ahead.”
Smith, who hails from Edinburgh, was elected to lead a union that has around 600,000 members in the public and private sectors.
The 53 year old replaced Tim Roache, who resigned last year after a series of allegations were made against him, which he has denied.
Gary Smith will now lead the GMB at a UK level (Image: PA)
Smith in his early days at an anti-poll tax rally
Smith made his mark as the GMB’s robust Scotland Secretary and he will bring his no-nonsense style to the new UK-wide job.
In an interview with the Daily Record, he said his trade union values were shaped by his upbringing in Edinburgh’s deprived Granton area.
“I was one of those who got out. A few years later there was a lot of young people who didn’t get off those housing estates because the heroin hit, [and] with it the HIV epidemic.”
He started work as a 16 year old gas apprentice in the 1980s and the GMB helped with his education.
He said: “That Thatcher period absolutely shaped my politics and my view about campaigning and struggle.”
When he was in charge of the union in Scotland, Smith was a fierce critic of the SNP-run council in Glasgow, led by Susan Aitken, which he believes has treated workers badly and presided over decline.
Smith also warned the SNP government that Scotland could face a jobs crisis worse than the 1980s coalmine closures if North Sea oil production is wound down.
And he insisted that the Scottish government needed big ideas to make life better for working people.
He said: “Scotland used to produce great footballers and we used to produce big political thinkers. We don’t do a lot of football now and I don’t see a lot of big thinking in politics either.”
Sign up to our Politics newsletter
READ MORE
Trade union chief backs 'review' of Labour funding as Keir Starmer faces crunch by-election
Speaking of a potential deal at Holyrood between the SNP and the Greens he was scathing.
Patrick Harvie’s party wants an end date for oil and gas production in the North Sea - a policy that would affect GMB members.
Smith says this would have a “devastating impact” on jobs in the North East and at Grangemouth, adding that the effect would be “far more profound” than what happened to mining communities under Thatcher.
He added: “People never voted for the Greens or SNP to support a campaign of mass unemployment, or to impoverish large chunks of Scotland.”
Asked if devolution had failed workers, he responded: “I think so, definitely. Part of the whole devolution project was supposed to be rebalancing the economy around jobs. That has not happened.”
Smith is also brutally honest about the situation faced by the GMB, however, saying declining trade union membership needed to be addressed.
He said: “We are not in a great state. Membership has been declining and the culture of the organisation is not right. Probably similar to where we were in Scotland. There’s a lack of focus about the union and what the union’s mission is.”
He said the GMB will be about “jobs and work” and there will also be a focus on transforming the union’s culture: “Our strapline is about making work better. The union needs to be focused on that. We are not a charity. We are not a political party. We are a working class organisation.”
Smith made his mark as the GMB’s robust Scotland Secretary and he will bring his no-nonsense style to the new UK-wide job.
In an interview with the Daily Record, he said his trade union values were shaped by his upbringing in Edinburgh’s deprived Granton area.
“I was one of those who got out. A few years later there was a lot of young people who didn’t get off those housing estates because the heroin hit, [and] with it the HIV epidemic.”
He started work as a 16 year old gas apprentice in the 1980s and the GMB helped with his education.
He said: “That Thatcher period absolutely shaped my politics and my view about campaigning and struggle.”
When he was in charge of the union in Scotland, Smith was a fierce critic of the SNP-run council in Glasgow, led by Susan Aitken, which he believes has treated workers badly and presided over decline.
Smith also warned the SNP government that Scotland could face a jobs crisis worse than the 1980s coalmine closures if North Sea oil production is wound down.
And he insisted that the Scottish government needed big ideas to make life better for working people.
He said: “Scotland used to produce great footballers and we used to produce big political thinkers. We don’t do a lot of football now and I don’t see a lot of big thinking in politics either.”
Sign up to our Politics newsletter
READ MORE
Trade union chief backs 'review' of Labour funding as Keir Starmer faces crunch by-election
Speaking of a potential deal at Holyrood between the SNP and the Greens he was scathing.
Patrick Harvie’s party wants an end date for oil and gas production in the North Sea - a policy that would affect GMB members.
Smith says this would have a “devastating impact” on jobs in the North East and at Grangemouth, adding that the effect would be “far more profound” than what happened to mining communities under Thatcher.
He added: “People never voted for the Greens or SNP to support a campaign of mass unemployment, or to impoverish large chunks of Scotland.”
Asked if devolution had failed workers, he responded: “I think so, definitely. Part of the whole devolution project was supposed to be rebalancing the economy around jobs. That has not happened.”
Smith is also brutally honest about the situation faced by the GMB, however, saying declining trade union membership needed to be addressed.
He said: “We are not in a great state. Membership has been declining and the culture of the organisation is not right. Probably similar to where we were in Scotland. There’s a lack of focus about the union and what the union’s mission is.”
He said the GMB will be about “jobs and work” and there will also be a focus on transforming the union’s culture: “Our strapline is about making work better. The union needs to be focused on that. We are not a charity. We are not a political party. We are a working class organisation.”
Glasgow Council leader Susan Aitken (Image: SUNDAY MAIL)
Smith will be a strong voice in the UK labour movement who will not mince his words, but he has a softer side and is proud to be the first Scot in charge of the GMB.
“I am the first Hibs supporter, I’m the first guy from West Granton and definitely the first Scot as well,” he said. “I’ve got the full set. It’s genuinely humbling.”
A Glasgow council spokesman said: “This is a spectacularly facile understanding of COP and its importance to our communities, our city and the planet. The world isn’t coming to Glasgow as a special reward. We are upfront about the challenges our city faces and are the right host precisely because we still live with the decisions of our past.
Smith will be a strong voice in the UK labour movement who will not mince his words, but he has a softer side and is proud to be the first Scot in charge of the GMB.
“I am the first Hibs supporter, I’m the first guy from West Granton and definitely the first Scot as well,” he said. “I’ve got the full set. It’s genuinely humbling.”
A Glasgow council spokesman said: “This is a spectacularly facile understanding of COP and its importance to our communities, our city and the planet. The world isn’t coming to Glasgow as a special reward. We are upfront about the challenges our city faces and are the right host precisely because we still live with the decisions of our past.
“Presidents, Prime Ministers and other leaders have been clear they consider the event to be the planet’s best last chance to avert a climate disaster – and, here in Glasgow and across the globe, it is precisely the most disadvantaged communities that are at risk of being hit hardest by that chaos, despite contributing least to it.
“For Glasgow, COP is about attracting investment; making safer and healthier places to live; creating jobs and providing skills for a new low carbon economy; making our homes more affordable to heat and connecting communities with accessible, green public transport.
“We are the right host precisely because of the challenges we face as a post-industrial city, which are replicated across the world.”
No comments:
Post a Comment