Responding to comments made by Iain McMillan, Director, CBI Scotland who this morning claimed that the campaign to save Diageo jobs might discourage inward investment in Scotland, Grahame Smith, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) General Secretary said:
“All around the world, decisions by global corporations to close workplaces are inevitably met by strong campaigns led by workers anxious to save jobs and communities. This is particularly true when employers are as deeply embedded in communities as Diageo is in Kilmarnock and Port Dundas. It is also inevitable, and indeed desirable, that local politicians support such campaigns.
“The executives who make these investment decisions know this to be true and will of course factor any potential impact into their decision making. If Diageo has been taken by surprise in this instance it simply betrays the arrogance with which they have approached the process.
“To claim that the current Diageo campaign is somehow unique to Scotland is extreme silliness on the part of CBI Scotland. Who knows, perhaps potential investors may even be impressed by the passion, loyalty and commitment demonstrated by the Diageo workforce and the communities of Kilmarnock and Port Dundas?
“If CBI Scotland is genuinely concerned about the prospects for inward investment, their representatives would be well advised to desist from regularly painting Scotland as an over-taxed, over-regulated business dystopia; a view of the world flatly contradicted by all the available evidence”.
ENDS
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Stephen Boyd 0141 337 8100