URGENT CALL TO ACTION - Protest the far right in Peterhead and Aberdeen on Sat 9 Aug

Aberdeen Trades Union Council is making an URGENT CALL TO ACTION to all our delegates, trade union members and associates. We have learned that the far right will be holding demonstrations in Peterhead AND Aberdeen this Saturday 9 August, both at 12 noon. It is imperative that we mobilise against them and challenge their narrative of hate and racism. 

In Peterhead, the so-called Peterhead United has organised a "family friendly" event. They will be condemning council cuts as do we, but will be turning their hatred on the wrong people. We need to turn out in force to tell them and their supporters that it is not the fault of immigrants and other marginalised groups. It is the rich amassing more and more of the wealth that are to blame.

Please join our counter protest in Peterhead and show the far right that we stand united and steadfast to condemn racism in Scotland and across the world. Their rhetoric is designed to justify exploitative economies and attacks on the most vulnerable and we will oppose them at every turn. 

In Aberdeen the target will once again be a hotel that houses refugees and asylum seekers. This is shameful. We must challenge their hateful presence and their attacks on vulnerable people. If you can't make it to Peterhead please join the counter protest in Aberdeen.

Please URGENTLY pass this information on to your branches also and urge your members and activists to mobilise to one of these counter protests. It has never been more important to stand up and be counted!

ATUC remembers Piper Alpha

Aberdeen Trades Union Council President and delegates attended a moving memorial service commemorating the 37^th anniversary of the Piper Alpha fatal accident.

Laying a wreath on behalf of ATUC, at the Piper Alpha memorial, in the Memorial Gardens in Hazelhead Park, President, Tommy Campbell said, "Our thoughts are with the families, work colleagues and friends of the 167 workers who were tragically killed on 6th July 1988."

He added, however, that as we remember all those who died we must never forget that this offshore accident could have been avoided as it was caused by inadequate maintenance and safety procedures by the operator Occidental.

 

Tommy warned that the oil and gas industry is still driven by cost reductions, with cutting corners and jobs being lost to save money to further increase the massive profits of the offshore oil and gas Operators.

 

"When oil and gas Operators prioritise fiscal matters above the health and safety of offshore workers, the devastatingly fatal Piper Alpha disaster serves as a haunting reminder as to the consequences of these decisions with devastatingly catastrophic consequences for the offshore workforce, their families and their communities. 

ATUC solidarity actions with comrades in struggle

Aberdeen Trades Union Council delegates were proud to stand in solidarity with trade union and community actions over recent weeks. 

On 12 June, delegates were proud to take ATUC's banner to Edinburgh to support our UNISON Enable colleagues in their fight for decent wages for Enable workers who support some of our most vulnerable citizens. 

We marched down the Royal Mile with UNISON members and supporters to Holyrood to demand the Scottish Government ensures Enable can afford to pay their skilled staff properly for their essential work.

Kate Ramsden, Joint Secretary said: "This dispute highlights the complete disconnect between the Scottish Government’s rhetoric and the situation in care on the ground.

ATUC joins fight against draconian social care cuts

Members of ATUC members in affiliated unions again joined community groups including “Disabled People against the Cuts” and local people affected by the cuts, to lobby the Aberdeenshire Integrated Joint Board (IJB) meeting at Woodhill House on 28 May.

This is the latest in a series of protests against cuts in both Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Council, where much of social care is under threat.

Very few councillors came to meet the demonstrators, demanding that services to the most vulnerable in our communities are not targeted for draconian cuts.  Instead, with some honourable exceptions, they scurried through internal corridors to miss those of us campaigning to save jobs and services.

They then voted through a number of cuts that will impact on both staff and the people who depend on the services. 

Unions have condemned the to the most vulnerable in our communities and the attacks, especially on women workers and pledged that the campaign will continue to defend jobs and services. Outsourcing of home care will mean redundancies and cuts to pay, and all the evidence shows that private companies provide poorer services. Cuts to staffing in residential homes will leave residents vulnerable and a reduction in day care services for adults with learning disabilities will leave many with nowhere to go.

ATUC joins climate activists and trade unionists at Westminster

ATUC delegate and Exec member, Steve Gray joined climate activists and trade unions as they rallied outside Parliament on 14 May to demand the Government deliver an emergency support package for oil and gas workers at the Spending Review next month.

The event was organised by Platform and supported by Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group as part of a year of trade union climate action. Click here for their website and resources.

Click HERE for more details of the event.

Speaking on behalf of ATUC Steve gave the following speech:

"I am here today to offer solidarity from the Aberdeen Trades Union Council which since 1868 has drawn together the workplace reps across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire north east Scotland to fight for workers' rights and social justice both at home and internationally.   

"The Just Transition Campaign for North Sea workers and their communities is story of greed, power and corruption set against community solidarity, determination, love and hope.

International Workers' Day - May Day Rally 2025

ATUC May Day Rally, Aberdeen 2025

Speech given by ATUC President, Tommy Campbell at the Aberdeen May Day rally Saturday 3rd May 2025

International Workers Day (May Day) is the time each year  when we celebrate the links between workers across our world.  

International Workers Day was established in July 1889 at a worldwide meeting of Trade Union and Labour Federations in Paris. It was agreed to hold the first International Workers Day on 1st May 1890 in  recognition of the launch of the campaign for an eight hour working day on 1st May 1986  by American Trade Unionists which suffered a major violent reaction by the bosses including the killing and  imprisonment of workers  who went on strike to achieve their demands.

There was also a major miscarriage of justice with the  execution of four workers  who were falsely accused of killing police officers in a bomb attack in Chicago.  The international Trade Union movement since has been demonstrating each year on May Day so this is the 135th anniversary of Aberdeen TUC’s annual May Day March.

The theme of our May Day march and rally  event this year  is Workers Rights and Human Rights  and this has never been more important. The fundamental message of May Day is for peace,  prosperity and  friendship between workers of all backgrounds and nationalities and this is needed more strongly now  than ever before.

The ATUC  strives  for  unity and solidarity between workers  and this is absolutely critical, especially given the  wars being raged in many countries around our world.

It is for this reason that we offer support to all refugees fleeing war in their own countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen and  Sudan.

The ATUC fully supports the International Solidarity and boycott campaign work of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee activists in Aberdeen against  the Apartheid Israeli government who continue with their  war crime of Genocide  committed against innocent adults and children in Palestine. The only war that should exist is a war on inequality, hatred , poverty and ill health.

In Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire  workers & their families, social security benefit claimants and pensioners  also face an intensifying cost-of-living crisis in addition to severe cuts in our public services and our NHS. Energy bills are now rising much faster than workers  wages. We are witnessing  increased levels of poverty and hardship  because the super  rich are getting richer at the expense of workers, benefit claimants and pensioners.

The scandal of Aberdeen City Council threatening its employees with fire and rehire  underlines why we need major changes in employment laws that support and protect workers rights.

This is why the Aberdeen TUC  will always provide  its support and solidarity to workers   in dispute with their  employers and to all those  fighting any form of injustice in their workplaces or in their communities whether that be in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire or elsewhere in our world.

Nelson Mandela had this to say:

“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.  Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery and apartheid, it is created by humans and therefore can be removed by the actions of human beings.”

Building on the New Deal for Workers - ATUC at STUC Congress

 #STUC25 Congress, held in Dundee from 28-30 April and chaired by UNISON's Lilian Macer fairly bowled along as speaking times were cut from the outset to 4 minutes for movers and 2 minutes for everyone else. The theme was Building on the New Deal for Workers with a focus on workers' rights and workers in struggle. 

In her President's speech, Lilian condemned the UK Labour Government for their cuts to public services and their lurch to the right and demanded proper funding for public services in Scotland. “They are essential to the very fabric of our society and we to see significant investment to support our most vulnerable”.

On Gaza she said, “We must demand an end to the killings in Gaza and the horrific scenes we have seen, pointing out that 70% of those murdered are women and children.”

The Monday of Congress was International Workers Memorial Day and she slammed the murders of the health workers by Israeli forces and pledged to continue to fight for the living.

At lunchtime a moving service was held outside the Caird Hall with speeches from a number of union representatives, who also laid wreaths.

Congress heard from both First Minister, John Swinney and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar. They highlighted all the concerns including a loss of industrial base in Scotland, the politics of division and rise of Reform and the far right, and the failure of our current political system to engage workers but themselves failed to offer any compelling answers and just trotted out more of the same - each condemning the failings in the other's parties.

A highlight of Congress was an excellent panel session on the crisis in social care with three young trade union activists working in the sector, from UNISON, Unite and GMB.

Their clear message - Scottish government should put its money where its mouth is, recognise social care is on its knees and properly fund the sector for the benefit of the workers and those who need care services.