Support MacKinnon Mills Strikers

That the Parliament expresses its support for the members of the Community union who are entering their sixth week of industrial action at MacKinnon Mills, owned by The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, in Coatbridge; recognises that the workforce, though highly skilled, is very poorly paid with many workers earning hourly rates below the minimum wage and only supplemented by productivity-related bonuses; is appalled that due to wage freezes and inflation the workforce is now 20% worse off than 10 years ago; believes that the workers, many of whom have given decades of service, have shown commitment and loyalty, have previously gone above and beyond their duty by agreeing to little or no pay settlements in the interests of the company and are now still making only the modest demand of a 2.5% pay increase, the same as The Edinburgh Woollen Mill imposed on its retail workers; is extremely concerned that the company is refusing to talk to or negotiate with the workers, despite their modest demands and the length of the dispute; believes that this is not in the interests of these workers, the company or the industry as a whole, and calls on the company to enter into meaningful negotiations with the workforce via its trade union.