Falkirk trade unionist voices fears over Green Freeports at Scottish Labour conference

Kevin Robertson, who is the chair of Falkirk Council branch of Unite, took his warning to the weekend’s Scottish Labour Party conference where his plea for vigilance won support.

The recent announcement that the UK and Scottish Governments have awarded Green Freeport status to the Firth of Forth and Cromarty Firth was widely welcomed. The new sites have been backed by up to £52 million in UK Government funding and Ministers say they will create around 75,000 new, high-skilled jobs.

Grangemouth, as part of the Firth of Forth site, is expected to see 20,000 of the promised jobs.

The Scottish Government has said that the green freeports will adhere to ‘fair work practices’ and will help net zero targets.

But in a speech to Scottish Labour Party conference at the weekend, Mr Robertson said he wanted more assurances that trade unions will be able to access freeport sites and negotiate agreements. He also wants to see a proper audit of all the jobs created in freeport areas to ensure any jobs are not simply displaced from other areas.

He said: “We should be deeply suspicious and sceptical of what is just a Thatcherite economic policy consigned to the dustbin in the nineties. Then, they were known as ‘free enterprise zones.’

“We know from experience that anything based on deregulation and cutting so-called red tape to businesses often raises the potential of weakening employment rights, terms and conditions and other protections for workers, communities and consumers.”

Speaking after the debate, Mr Robertson said: “Our local members are concerned that, as the UK Nation Crime Agency has warned, freeports could be exploited by money launderers and increase the risk of illicit activity. We are also concerned that, as the Treasury Office for Budget Responsibility has shown, freeports have little or no economic benefit.

“Even if there are benefits, we need to know at what cost this will come to the those that work there and also the local community, particularly in Grangemouth. We are seriously concerned about the impact that green freeports will have on the local community and workers’ jobs unless legally binding requirements are put in place.

“That is why we took the motion to the Scottish Labour Party Conference in Edinburgh at the weekend and were pleased that it received the unanimous support of conference.”

Mr Robertson was supported by the secretary of Falkirk East Labour Party, Iain Peattie. He told the conference: “Let me say loud and clear that freeports are a gangsters’ paradise – a haven for drug smuggling, money laundering, people trafficking as well as tax evasion and avoidance.”

He said that the Freeport model had already been tried but abandoned as it had “little or not economic benefit.”

Mr Peattie added: “There is a danger, that instead of levelling up, freeports will deepen market competition, make multinationals more powerful and reinvent Thatcherism, Sunak style , for the 2020’s.”