UK
LABOUR OUTLOOK
6th June 2024
“We challenge Labour to provide an alternative, coherent & credible economic strategy that radically challenges the current orthodoxy on spending & borrowing so that we can properly fund our industries and public services.”
From the RMT Press Office – Statement on general election 2024.
We are not affiliated to any political party and will back Labour and socialist candidates, it is clear the outcome of the general election will be a Tory-led Government or Labour-led government and that in order to defeat the Tories, Labour has to win.
Over the last fourteen years the Tories have undertaken a sustained attack on working people and our members through anti-union legislation and attacks on terms and conditions. The Tories have also presided over the P&O scandal where they did nothing to protect our members. It is our belief that if the Tories are elected, they will come back with an even more vicious assault on workers’ jobs and conditions, and trade union and employment rights.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “It is objectively in the interests of working people to get the Tories out which means getting a Labour led government in, and our members will need to campaign and vote accordingly.
“Labour is supporting key policies, such as the New Deal for Working People, which includes repealing the 2016 Trade Union Act and Minimum Services legislation. Labour is also supporting public ownership and reintegration of large parts of the railway, removing the ban on publicly owned buses and improving seafarers’ rights.
“However, there will be no blank cheques for Labour and we also challenge Labour to provide an alternative, coherent and credible economic strategy that radically challenges the current orthodoxy on spending and borrowing so that we can properly fund our industries and public services. And alongside the rest of the trade union movement, we are also appalled and condemn the approach the Labour leadership has taken to the conflict in Palestine.
“Protections for our members and the delivery of progressive polices are delivered, as always, by our union and the wider trade union movement being prepared to fight for progressive change. We will continue to fight to protect our members’ jobs and conditions. Our fighting political and industrial approach will continue before the election and after the election.
“A Labour government increases our prospects of successfully fighting to improve our members’ interests.”This was originally published by the RMT on June 5 here.
Labour must restore pay – or face strike action – Ben Folley
By Ben Folley
Ahead of the Labour Party manifesto being finalised at a Clause V meeting on Friday, trades unions in the public sector have been setting out the need for Labour to commit to a restoration of pay, after more than a decade of real terms pay cuts, or face an inevitable new wave of industrial action.
More than a year on from a period of loosely-coordinated mass strikes across a range of public services, which widely secured limited increases in pay deals, the union movement is clear following the most recent TUC Congress, that its demand is for pay restoration following the decline in value since 2010, and will likely have to use its industrial muscle with whichever government of the day to secure a bigger slice of public funds for its members.
The General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, Matt Wrack, currently also serving a term as President of the Trades Union Congress, set out his expectation that an incoming Labour Government should recognise the punishment of key public sector workers under the Conservatives pay policies and that staff would not accept below inflation rises from Labour.
Other unions too, have continued to set out their expectation of at least inflation-proofed pay rises, including the British Medical Associations junior doctors who have committed to taking strike action in the election campaign, before polling day.
Speaking to the Independent newspaper, Matt Wrack said,
“Pay stagnated since 2008, particularly for those 14 years it has been under attack, in the public sector.”
“I think Labour will have to address that certainly, I don’t think there will be a mood to accept a year after year of below inflation pay rises, there’s got to be some programme to restore people’s living standards, particularly in the aftermath of the cost of living crisis.
“So I think the unions whether they’re affiliated to Labour or not will be seeking to fo that. That’s what our job is to improve the living standards and rights of our members. And I think we will be pursuing that very forcefully, whoever’s in government after after July.”
He said much the same to The Guardian as he took to the media,
“An incoming Labour government has to take account of the fact that people have struggled over 14 years, particularly on the back of the cost of living crisis. Something has got to be done to address that in people’s pay packets.”
“I get that they’re going to be under financial constraints and so on, but something will need to be done about it. Otherwise, you may see people taking further industrial action.”
Elsewhere Unite the Union’s General Secretary, Sharon Graham, took a swipe at the Labour leadership for changes to the New Deal for Working People previously agreed between the party leadership and the trades unions.
Drafted by Andy McDonald and launched by Angela Rayner at Labour’s 2021 party conference in Brighton, aspects of the agreement have come under threat, including the single status of worker and the scope of collective bargaining proposals which it had been proposed would be brought in across a range of sectors under the title of Fair Pay Agreements, but the commitment to which has seemingly since been reduced to a consultation on introducing one solely in the care sector.
Graham, said in a piece for the Guardian,
“look at the planned introduction of sectoral bargaining, which is now on life support. Limited to one sector and lacking any sort of clarity as to whether actual negotiations on issues such as pay will take place, this important policy will without doubt be watered down still further as part of the much-trumpeted “consultation”. If collective bargaining is not restored to a respectable level, the new deal will not deliver real change for workers where it matters, in their pockets.”
Concluding, she wrote,
“yes, vote Labour. But do it with your eyes wide open and don’t be afraid to push for more from a party built to be the workers’ voice.”
Unite will be represented at tomorrow’s Clause V manifesto meeting.
Elsewhere, the National Education Union launched their Manifesto for Education, with a key demand of ‘Make teacher pay competitive to fix recruitment crisis’.
Teaching union general secretary Daniel Kebede, said,
“A seemingly permanent recruitment and retention crisis is the result of failure to address workload and real terms pay cuts over many years.”
“all government decisions, including a response to the recommendations, will need to be carefully considered in light of the sensitivity of the pre-election period”.
“The government will publish its response in due course, but will not be able to do so during the pre-election period.”
This has prompted outrage from teaching unions who condemned the late initiation of the pay review process.
In hospitals too, health unions have condemned the late running of their own pay award process.
The Royal College of Nursing has warned that this year’s NHS pay uplift could take until November and sought urgent summer negotiations to prevent a six-month delay.
In their own election manifesto document, the RCN prioritise,
They also call for,
“The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and Trade Union Act 2016 to be revoked, every section, without exception.”
The first leader’s debate of the election saw RMT union general secretary Mick Lynch on Newsnight to discuss the content, where he said of Starmer, “He needs to come to the country with a bolder message.”
The RMT has already set out it’s own statement on the election, arguing,
“It is objectively in the interests of working people to get the Tories out which means getting a Labour led government in, and our members will need to campaign and vote accordingly.
“However, there will be no blank cheques for Labour and we also challenge Labour to provide an alternative, coherent and credible economic strategy that radically challenges the current orthodoxy on spending and borrowing so that we can properly fund our industries and public services.
“Protections for our members and the delivery of progressive polices are delivered, as always, by our union and the wider trade union movement being prepared to fight for progressive change.”
Labour is still expected to commit to the repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) legislation whilst there is a strong demand to repeal the Trade Union Act (2016) and earlier anti-union laws.
But on pay, whilst Labour has condemned the Conservatives failure to ‘make work pay’ whilst remaining silent on it’s public sector pay commitments in the run-in to the General Election, thanks to Rachel Reeves’ self-imposed fiscal rules straitjacket.
Trades unions will be hoping for a clear commitments on pay in Labour’s manifesto but it is likely they will have to pressure an incoming Labour Government to deliver what members are owed.
‘How Labour’s New Deal for Working People will strengthen trade unions’
Labour quietly released its finalised employment reforms on May 24th – although some parts of it, for instance a single status of worker and sectoral collective bargaining, have been significantly altered since it was first launched in 2021, it should make it significantly easier for trade unions to organise.
This is why, with the limited exception of Unite – which is focussing their criticism on the fire and rehire provisions – the affiliated trade unions are remaining disciplined and supportive of the package. The legislative package, not all of which (particularly the parts covering trade union legislation) will go through a consultation period, does this in three ways: It makes labour a more secure commodity, removes legal prohibitions on trade union activity, and provides unions with more rights.
Making labour more secure
Labour providing full day one rights to all employees means that, contrary to ill-informed reports about probationary periods, employees cannot so easily be dismissed. Equally, providing permanent zero hours workers, plentiful in the NHS and hospitality, with the right to be provided with a contract that guarantees a working pattern reflective of their average work across as 12 week reference period does the same.
The more secure labour is the easier it is to organise. What is more ambiguous is how well Labour’s proposed limitations on ‘fire and rehire’ function. Currently, Labour is proposing to implement a statutory code of conduct that will give employers an obligation to consult with trade unions before deciding to fire and rehire their staff. Failure to follow this code will add worth to any claims of unfair dismissal (which can be brought if an employee is still employed but under different terms) at an employment tribunal.
This differs from Labour MP Barry Gardiner’s proposed bill that amended the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act to oblige employers to share information with trade unions (if they did not then the dismissal was automatically unfair) and gave the central arbitration committee the power to issue an injunction. It remains to be seen if a statutory code has the same effect on employers but is unlikely to deter the more determined ones.
Furthermore, it should be noted that these measures will not affect workers who are ‘self-employed’, meaning that much of the Gig Economy will still be insecure and undermine more secure Labour- as CWU found many of Royal Mail’s competitors have done so.
However, Labour’s other commitments grant unions with more rights of access to workplaces, and it is not impossible to secure recognition with gig economy entities, as GMB have demonstrated with Deliveroo.
Changing anti-union legislation
Labour will make it easier for trade unions to take industrial action and negotiate with employers, by fully reporting the 2016 Trade Union Act, the 2022 Agencies Regulations, and the 2023 Minimum Service Levels Act.
The most significant of these is the 2016 Act, as the other two are still relatively nascent, although ASLEF and the FBU have already had to grapple with the 2023 Act. Repealing this would mean that unions such as UNISON, the RCN, and UCU would find it easier to organise national strike action.
Equally, Labour’s commitment to implementing electronic and workplace balloting means that ballots will be cheaper. Although, as the BMA found out with its referendum on the pay offer for consultant doctors, electronic balloting will not be a silver bullet for reaching disengaged members.
Removing restrictions on industrial action is not about trying to encourage strikes (a practice that different unions have different perspectives on), it is to give trade unions more scope to bargain as they will not have to waste negotiating time by going to painstaking steps to ensure a ballot a and subsequent industrial action is legal in order to avoid sequestration. A more effective measure would be to restore the 1906 immunities that unions were deprived of in 1982; unfortunately, Labour is unlikely to do this.
It is in the spirit of encouraging bargains that Labour has pledged to reform the process for achieving statutory recognition by removing the requirements for unions to demonstrate that at least 50% of the workers in a proposed bargaining unit are likely to support recognition and for a ballot to have a turnout of at least 40% of all workers in the bargaining unit. For an example of how effective this could be, look at GMB’s efforts to gain recognition at Amazon in Coventry.
Giving unions new rights
Labour has also pledged to provide unions with improved rights such as a right of access to the workplace, and more protections and facilities time for lay representatives. This should make it easier for unions to recruit and organise from the ground up, as the union movement is one that depends on shop stewards and the ability to recruit members.
What these rights are is currently undefined, as it is easier for Labour to identify what and how they would repeal than how they would implement something that works. Given the above commitments, there is reason for cautious optimism that Labour will sincerely engage with providing unions with new rights and its agreement to create a single enforcement body with TUC and trade union representation is significant.
Each of these three categories supports and strengthens each other as ultimately they make it easier for trade unions to grow and for workers to advance their collective interests.
Trade union pragmatism means that while the New Deal is far from perfect, the affiliated unions will now back it to the hilt, as they recognise how, if combined with effective and strategic action on their part, it has the potential to be transformative for their movement and reverse decades of decline. Within the comforting confines of labourism, all else is secondary.
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