Wednesday, May 15, 2024

 

UK

Union leaders hold Labour leaders to workers’ rights commitments

“Labour has reached agreement with the unions on its flagship workers’ rights proposals after general secretaries demanded the party commit to no further weakening of the original plans,” reports the Guardian.

“One of the key critics of changes, the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the unions had been listened to and the workers’ voice heard in what she described as a ‘red line’ summit with Keir Starmer.” 

An Independent comment was more sceptical: “Keir Starmer met trade union leaders this afternoon to agree a reality-based version of Labour’s employment rights policy. In a choreographed sequence, Angela Rayner’s diluted New Deal for workers’ rights has been declared not to have been diluted.”

The joint statement issued by the Labour leadership and the union leaders after the meeting stated: “Together we have reiterated Labour’s full commitment to the ‘New deal for working people’ as agreed in July. We will continue to work together at pace on how a Labour government would implement it in legislation.”

In short, the arrangement agreed last July – already highlighted by critics as a watering down of the original Labour Conference position – is now the agreed line. But the July position had already dropped the single tier status for all workers, weakened the ban on zero-hours contracts and limited fair pay agreements to social care only (post-consultation), rather than “across the economy”.

However, on balance, the statement agreed yesterday is a victory for the unions who put up a united front and stood firm against attempts from the Party’s right, documented previously on Labour Hub, to row back on the commitments unanimously approved by last year’s Conference.

“Well done to the affiliated trade unions for securing this guarantee.,” tweeted Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome. “Workers across the country need the policies in the New Deal for Working People. The next Labour government should make them a reality.”

Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP agreed: “A united front of trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party has successfully pushed back those who have been working to water down the New Deal for Workers. The next stage is to draft the detail of the legislation that will make this programme a reality.”

A Momentum spokesperson said: “We congratulate Labour’s affiliated trade unions on resisting the latest attempted dilution of the New Deal for Working People. However, it remains the case that its current iteration falls well short of the original vision laid out in 2021. Policies like day one worker rights, economy-wide collective bargaining, a single status for all workers and increasing sick pay are more needed than ever in the insecure world of work created by the Tories. What’s more, they are popular too. We need the full implementation of Labour’s original New Deal for Working People – the working people of Britain deserve nothing less.”

Momentum activist Angus Satow has detailed how Labour’s New Deal for Working People has been constantly eroded since it was first announced in 2021. But this is not some leftist obsession. The Financial Times’ Jim Pickard has also drilled down into the shifts in Labour’s policy over the last three years.

Like a lot of other Labour policies that  the leadership feels lukewarm about, the Party’s New Deal for Workers enjoys “overwhelming support”, including among Tory voters, according to recent polling.

In other Labour Party news…

The row over the welcoming of hard-right Tory MP Natalie Elphicke into Labour’s ranks continues. “At least one Constituency Labour Party has now passed a motion condemning the decision to welcome Natalie Elphicke into the party, calling it ‘galling’ when some left-wing MPs are suspended,” reports Labour List.

The City of Durham CLP City of Durham resolution follows earlier opposition to Elphicke from within the Party. TUC President Matt Wrack joined the clamour of disapproval, saying her vocal support for anti-strike laws should be “incompatible” with the party whip. He  described the MP’s views as “disgraceful” after she used a parliamentary intervention in March to blame firefighters for the deaths of three people who perished during a national strike.

Following, the admission of Elphicke, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy has produced a model motion calling on the Party’s NEC to consider the Party’s membership criteria for the PLP to ensure they are in line with Labour values.

Questions the NEC could usefully address, suggests the Group, include the following:

Should the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) welcome into its ranks more MPs like Natalie Elphicke, a former member of the Tory hard-right ‘Common Sense Group’? Should the PLP be welcoming such hard-line views on immigration? Should the PLP recruit new members who have previously been suspended from the House of Commons for trying to influence a judge in a sexual offence trial? On its left, shouldn’t the breadth of the PLP include members who have campaigned on issues such as against wars and in support of Palestinian human rights and against racism? Or should such progressive politics be pushed out of the PLP as has recently started to happen?

Momentum is also recommending some model motions for CLPS to promote ahead of Party Conference, together with constitutional amendments, a reminder of the timetable for submitting these and a recommended list of candidates to be nominated – all here.

MAY 15, 2024

Image: https://www.picpedia.org/legal-17/w/workers-rights.html. License: Creative Commons 3 – CC BY-SA 3.0 Attribution Link: Pix4free.org – link to – https://pix4free.org/ Original Author: Nick Youngson – link to – ttp://www.nyphotographic.com/ Original Image: https://www.picpedia.org/legal-17/w/workers-rights.html


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