IAIN Gray, one of the three Scottish Labour leadership candidates, received a significant boost yesterday when he was endorsed by Unite, Scotland's biggest trade union.
The former enterprise minister has already picked up considerable support from his fellow MSPs, Labour MPs at Westminster and the party's MEPs in Brussels in the race to succeed Wendy Alexander.
The fight for union support was expected to be tight
with Cathy Jamieson and Andy Kerr, the other two leadership contenders, in line to pick up significant union support.
But Mr Gray's success in getting the official backing of Unite – which was formed from the T&G and Amicus unions – represents a major success.
Unite members make up about half of the union vote for the Scottish Labour leadership. The other big union, Unison, was due to announce its preferred candidate this morning, with Mr Kerr favourite to win its backing.
Ms Jamieson has the support of three smaller unions, USDAW, Aslef and the National Union of Mineworkers, but she is expected to pick up the votes of many other union members, regardless of the recommendation of the union leaders.
Each union will pick a favoured candidate but it is up to individual members how they vote. The contest is being run on a one-member one-vote ballot which means union leaders can advise, but not force, their members to support their choice.
Mr Gray said: "I have been an active trade unionist all my life and I believe I have taken those values into my time in politics. I hope I can continue to do so if elected as leader.
"I believe I can offer Scottish Labour a new voice and a fresh start and I'm very happy with the positive response I've received to that message from elected politicians, trade unionists, and from party members across all parts of Scotland."
The three candidates expect to hear later today whether they have secured the backing of other constituency associations and trade unions, all of whom have until midday to register their formal backing of one of the candidates. By last night Mr Gray appeared to be in the lead, but with three candidates standing and the contest to be decided by all of Scotland's party members and trade unionists, any of the three could win.
Mr Kerr, the former health minister, was given a boost yesterday when he received the support of Scottish Labour Students. He highlighted the threat to students from the SNP's proposed local income tax and said: "It will only further deter students from the poorest backgrounds from going to university in the first place and the Scottish Labour Party must stand on the side of students on this issue.
"I firmly believe that students who need to work alongside their degrees should not be taxed for doing so."
Ms Jamieson used the backing of the shop workers' union USDAW yesterday to call for shop workers to be given the same legal protection as emergency workers.
Bar workers and other "frontline" workers dealing with the public should also be brought within the scope of the Emergency Workers Act, she said.
The move was backed by USDAW, which claims retail staff are increasingly suffering violence and threats of violence in their workplace.
Ms Jamieson said: "People who deal with the public provide a great service to our society, and should be able to go about their work without fear of attack or intimidation.
"I want to see the existing legislation widened to allow courts to deal with incidents as a specific offence carrying a maximum penalty of nine months in jail, a fine of £5,000 – or both."
WHAT NEXT?THE Scottish Labour leadership will be decided by an electoral college with three sections.
One is made up of MPs, MSPs and MEPs, one of members of affiliated trade unions and societies and one of party members. All three sections have equal weight in the election.
Every trade unionist in an affiliated union and every party member will have a vote, regardless of the decision of union leaders or local associations to endorse particular candidates.
The winner will be the candidate who secures the biggest share of the vote once the votes from all three sections have been counted.
The full article contains 716 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
