Hansard

I, too, congratulate Cathy Peattie on securing another excellent debate, this time to mark international workers memorial day. It is appropriate that the debate is held on a motion in her name, given the sterling work that she does as convener of the Labour trade union group in the Parliament. I am not at all jealous that she secures so many debates and I secure none.

It is important that democratic Parliaments around the world take time to consider those workers who have died, suffered injuries or suffer serious ill health because of being forced to work in poor and dangerous conditions. That is not given the prominence that it should, not only in Scotland but around the world. That has particularly been the case in recent years, in which the focus has been very much on the new partnership between Government and business. Although many may welcome that new focus, it creates a danger of forgetting that the most important partnership, certainly for any Labour Government, is the partnership with the workers—the people whom the Labour party was brought into existence to represent.

We should never allow ourselves to forget that fact. It is not forgotten in Dundee, where the council has taken the excellent initiative of establishing an annual lecture on international workers memorial day. I think that Jaquie Roberts, the chief executive of the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, is giving the lecture in Dundee tomorrow on health and safety in the area for which she is responsible. Dundee is very much a trade unionist's city. I was delighted to hear that Phil Gallie had been a trade unionist. I hope that he is still a trade unionist, because he is still working—well, he is supposed to be working. In Dundee, there has always been an emphasis on looking after the interests of workers. Among many other outstanding trade union leaders, the late Harry McLevy came from the city.

I take the opportunity to mention the 167 men who died in the Piper Alpha disaster. The discovery of oil in the North sea is often regarded as a great boon in Scotland. It was certainly good for the Treasury and the oil companies, which profited handsomely from it. It has been good for the United Kingdom economy, which has been given a great boost. Indeed, it has been good for releasing the pressure on public spending in our country over many years. However, that has all been achieved at a price—a high price indeed for those men who lost their lives in that terrible disaster.

I know that some good came out of the Piper Alpha disaster. I know that a public inquiry was held and that health and safety rules in the North sea have been tightened up. I also know that trade unions there are better organised than they ever were before. Even with all that, as Cathy Peattie pointed out, 68 men have died in the years since the Piper Alpha disaster.

As Tommy Sheridan pointed out, there has never been an inquiry into the actions of those whose negligence was criminally responsible for the loss of those 167 lives on Piper Alpha. The remit of the original public inquiry deliberately did not include consideration of who was responsible for the disaster. That injustice remains and it must be put right.

I pay tribute to Gavin Cleland, who has campaigned ceaselessly over the years to have such an inquiry into Piper Alpha. I do not think that anyone could have attended any political gathering in Scotland in the past 10 or 15 years without knowing who Gavin Cleland is. He is always there with his big banner, making sure that we never forget the men of Piper Alpha. He is right to do that.

I lodged a motion on the issue, but I was unsuccessful in securing a debate on it. However, I have lodged a new motion—S1M-2906—on criminal responsibility and the Piper Alpha disaster. Five members have signed the motion so far, and I plead for as many other members as possible to do so, in order that we may secure the debate that we want to have.

I am glad that there is an international aspect to the motion that we are debating this evening. Scottish manufacturing industry has been in decline for many years, but that is not the result of a lack of demand for our manufactured products. Companies are switching production away from places such as Scotland where trade unions are well organised and where there are health and safety regulations to parts of the world where there are no or very weak trade unions and where Governments turn a blind eye to health and safety regulations. In those countries, companies can profit from putting workers' lives at risk. That is the international situation that we confront as we debate this issue in the Scottish Parliament.

I hope that the Parliament will take a stand and that ministers will indicate that they intend to do something about the situation that I have described. It is a disgrace that the likes of Nike can be seen as respectable companies in this country and can appear on television sponsoring football matches and so on, when at the same time they are exploiting workers around the world in sweatshops where there are no trade unions, colluding with right-wing Governments to murder and kidnap people, and giving workers a very hard time. It is time that we confronted such companies and stopped working in partnership with them, because they do not deserve it.