THE Scottish Greens are aiming for a record number of MSPs to be elected to the Scottish Parliament next May, and are hoping to get more seats than Scottish Labour.
Speaking later today to the Scottish Green Party conference, co-leader Lorna Slater is expected to say that the party could build on momentum shown in opinion polls which have the Greens on track to win more seats than ever before.
Slater is expected to say: “Many SNP supporters are starting to realise that it is the Scottish Greens who have been making Scotland fairer and greener for the last four years.
“Can we grow our numbers in eight months, all over Scotland? Sure we can. The opinion polls have shown we can do this. Maybe we can catch Scottish Labour. The momentum is behind us and we can do the work needed to do to make that dream a reality.”
She will also say: “The Greens have the ideas for our future. We have the plans to rebuild the public sector. We want to secure new jobs, tackle inequality and protect our planet. You don’t find hope in targets. You find hope in action.”
The speech will come after her fellow co-leader Patrick Harvie will outline the impact the party’s current six MSPs have had over the last four years, including Scotland’s fairer income tax system, reversing cuts to local services and winning free bus travel for young people from next year.
READ MORE: 'Scotland should have four-day working week': Greens call for workers' New Deal
Yesterday Harvie launched a report which calls for more powers for trade unions to tackle low pay, precarious contracts and poor working conditions.
The Scottish Green New Deal for Workers includes proposals to establish national collective bargaining to drive up pay and conditions in low-wage sectors, for example in social care and early years education.
The proposals would require companies who receive public grants to recognise trade unions, eliminate precarious contracts and pay at least the real Living Wage.
Harvie also said ministers should encourage a shift to a four-day working week and collective wage bargaining.
Speaking via an online livestream, he told the conference: “There is no doubt that we could do more in Scotland with our £11 billion of public procurement every year.
“We need to be innovative and to push the boundaries so that we can go beyond encouragement, and require trade union recognition, no use of tax havens or precarious employment practices, and fair pay.”
Harvie said companies around the world had trialled a four-day working week and found it had improved staff morale.
“The evidence shows time and time again that reducing working hours whilst maintaining pay increases productivity and wellbeing,” he said. “It’s a win-win for workers and employers, and the only barrier to delivering it is habit, and in many workplaces a culture of presenteeism.
“For many, Covid is already forcing them to question this culture. Now is the time for us to deliver the change.”
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