President Katrina puts services in election focus

UNISON's Katrina Purcell was this year's STUC president and she used her address to underline what people wanted from their parliament at the election.

It was a parliament that served them by delivering improvements in a public service that has "integrity and accountability". "Public-service reforms should not be about packaging up the so-called profitable bits of services to be auctioned off in a reverse version of e-bay, where the lowest bid gets the prize," she said.

When it is often fashionable to slate the Scottish Parliament, Katrina pointed to the huge successes of devolution. A distinct Scottish approach to public services focussing on service delivery not job cuts.

A distinctive approach to public health with the smoking ban at its centre.

A distinctive Scottish approach to partnership with unions and the 'memorandum of understanding' producing the goods on workers' safety, skills and learning and diversity in the workplace.

The parliament had not yet "entered its adolescence" but achievements were there to be built upon.

Katrina, at 35, is a tad young for an STUC President but the firm but friendly way she chaired an at times difficult Congress, was built on years of union experience in the workplace and as a young member.

"I am not looking retirement in the face like my predecessors", she said. "The future of the trade union movement is my future, not something I am leaving behind. "It is a future in which I intend to play a full part".

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