Between 28 and 30 April, the MU attended STUC's annual Congress at Caird Hall, Dundee. The event serves as a significant gathering for Scotland’s trade unions, providing a platform to discuss and shape policies affecting workers' rights, fair work, and social justice. This year’s theme was ‘Building on the New Deal for Workers’.
MU Motions
Our motions, which all carried unanimously, included:
- Value Music Education, which asked Congress to call on the STUC to: lobby Government to properly fund music education and ensure that funding delivered through the Scottish Government and councils rises in line with inflation; lobby Government to ensure that Youth Music Initiative (YMI) is a targeted beneficiary of the £100m promised by ScotGov and that its funding is returned to the real terms level it enjoyed in 2003; lobby Government to recognise the particular challenges in rural communities where travel costs between schools are higher; stand with the MU where jobs and careers are threatened by cuts to music services.
- Advancing Fair Work for Musicians and Creative Workers (which formed composite K and was seconded by the MU), asked Congress to call on the STUC to: advocate for the Scottish Government to make compliance with Fair Work principles a mandatory condition for receiving public funding in the creative sectors; work with the MU and creative unions to campaign for improved pay, job security, and working conditions for creative workers; lobby for more robust enforcement of non-compliance with Fair Work principles in the creative industries, including developing an accreditation system tailored to the creative industries; ensure the voices of creative workers are included in national discussions on Fair Work policy, highlighting the unique challenges of non-traditional employment.
- The Arts Need Stability and Transparency, which asked Congress to call on the STUC General Council to: campaign to hold the Scottish Government, and future Scottish Governments, accountable and keep the promise to invest in the arts in Scotland; work with the Creative Unions to ensure that Fair Work principles are established as robustly as possible within the culture sector, including establishing mechanisms to hold employers and engagers of freelancers to account; support Culture Unions to make sure the internal review of Creative Scotland actually makes funding for the arts more transparent and democratic; campaign for the Scottish Government to improve the spending for National Companies.
Our members in action
Ronnie MacNiven.
MU member Ronnie MacNiven moved our motion on 'Value Music Education', which was enthusiastically supported by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and Equity.
In Ronnie’s speech, he highlighted that music education is not a luxury or optional extra, adding that it helps build vital life skills like discipline, collaboration, and perseverance, not just musical talent.
Ben Lunn.
MU delegate, Ben Lunn, moved the Union's motion on 'The Arts Need Transparency and Stability'. In his speech Ben said, “If we believe that Scotland’s a nation of culture, it needs stability and transparency, it needs democracy. We need bread and we need our roses too.”
Calum Baird.
Our delegate Calum Baird seconded the motion on 'Advancing Fair Work', and also spoke in support of ‘Keep Grangemouth Working - The Fight Must Go On’. The emergency motion, moved by Unite, discussed the closure of Grangemouth oil refinery and the wider implications for the local economy and community.
In a speech to Congress Calum said, “It’s not just the industry but the community which will suffer. As a musician, we have lost our cultural spaces including libraries and music venues. Please support and consider what happens when we also lose our industrial base.”
Find out more
On the second day of Congress, Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar addressed delegates and called for ceasefires around the globe, an end to violence, and the right to live in peace, dignity and security.
Caroline Sewell, Regional Organiser for Scotland, was asked by the STUC Young Workers Committee to speak on their motion regarding ‘Wage Parity for Young Workers’. Their motion highlighted that even though employers can get away with paying young workers so much less, young people still have the same bills to pay. Speaking to Congress, Caroline drew attention to the way experience is often weaponised by questionable employers, pointing to ‘young artist opportunities’, which hide behind being ‘educational’ but ultimately mean young and emerging artists are not paid what they should be.
The MU also supported the Scottish Artists' Union motion on UK artificial intelligence and copyright legislation, where Ben Lunn advised Congress that “we need to make sure that humanity is at the centre of modernisation. It is not just about protecting creative work - it’s about protecting Labour.”
For more information and the full list of carried motions, visit STUC Congress 2025. You can also read the First Minister's speech from Congress here.
If you'd like to represent the MU as a delegate at next year's STUC Congress, please get in touch via sni@themu.org.