Comprising of Motions 14, 15, 16 and amends
Congress notes Labour’s commitment to create 650,000 green jobs by 2030.
Congress believes that serious state investment and industrial planning on a scale not seen in decades, will be required to deliver on that objective.
Congress believes that the new Labour government can end over a decade of delay and incoherence over our national industrial strategy.
As trade unions we have a unique insight into how codependent and mutually beneficial our industries are to economic growth and national security.
The steel, gas, chemicals, water and wider manufacturing industries have made the UK prosperous and stable; their decline threatens our national security. As one collapses, another becomes vulnerable.
The Tories dogmatic neoliberal approach has meant that rather than an industrial strategy we have exported jobs, offshored profits, and collapsed UK industry. The new government has the chance to put workers and communities at the heart of a new industrial strategy.
Labour is determined that they will create new high-quality jobs, working with business and trade unions, as they manage the transition. They have promised to rebuild supply chains at home and to export the technologies of the future.
Labour’s National Wealth Fund will directly invest in ports, hydrogen and industrial clusters in every corner of the country, and to secure the future of Britain’s automotive and steel industries.
They will reward clean energy developers with a British Jobs Bonus, allocating up to £500m per year from 2026, to incentivise firms who offer good jobs, terms and conditions and build their manufacturing supply chains in our industrial heartlands, coastal areas, and energy communities.
Congress agrees that climate change poses a systemic risk to working class communities, but at a time of rising geopolitical tension does not believe that we can abandon fossil fuels until we know how the jobs and communities from the North Sea fields will be protected. Congress notes with dismay that the new government has adopted a target to stop drilling in the North Sea before any plan for jobs has been agreed.
Decarbonisation must be led by the workers, industries and communities involved.
Congress notes that:
i. national security is dependent on an economy with industry at its heart that works for all
ii. gas remains vital to powering UK manufacturing, from food and beverages to steel, as well as 22 million home boilers
iii. over 30,000 offshore North Sea oil and gas jobs, plus seven to eight times that number in the supply chain, are under threat
iv. creating 35,000 new green energy jobs in Scotland by 2030 requires additional funding of £1.1bn per year, a fraction of the oil profits made in recent years
v. over 90 per cent of goods arrive and depart the UK by sea, making resilient supply chains dependent on a strong UK Merchant Navy to safeguard the supply of food, fuel, and other vital goods
Congress agrees to do everything in its power to prevent oil and gas workers becoming the miners of net zero. We will not let them suffer the equivalent of the coal closures, which broke the back of mining towns across the UK.
Congress commits to working with the UK government to ensure:
a. an industrial strategy policy that maximises our domestic energy strengths for national security, with all assets and options part of the solution: nuclear, renewables and oil and gas production
b. procurement policy which prioritises domestic supply chains, unionised jobs and workers’ voices
c. that any company that receives government funding or bonus’s (taxpayers’ money) to incentivise companies to offer good jobs, must have a union recognition agreement that supports collective bargaining, with an independent trade union
d. public ownership of energy companies to end profiteering, reduce household bills and strengthen national security
e. backing the build of Sizewell C and supporting small modular reactors
f. an industrial strategy that supports the growth of our domestic maritime industry and merchant navy
g. no ban on new licences for drilling, before a fully funded workers’ plan guaranteeing commensurate jobs for all North Sea workers is agreed.
Mover: Unite
Seconder: GMB
Supporters: Aegis, Nautilus International