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TUC Congress 2024: Delegates approve calls for collective bargaining across the economy
:Delegates at the TUC Congress have called for radical improvements to collective bargaining, a national minimum wage that ends in-work poverty and an above-inflation pay rise for all NHS staff.
Representatives from across the trade union movement gathered in Brighton for the first day of the annual conference, the first in more than a decade to take place under a Labour government.
Trade union delegates are set to discuss a series of motions over the coming days, covering subjects including Labour’s New Deal for Working People, Britain’s relationship with the European Union and calls for a “just transition” for North Sea oil workers.
‘We expect Labour to end austerity in public services’
The first wave of motions saw delegates back a call from the PCS union to campaign for pay reform in the public sector to ensure it remains a “career of choice”, including a flexible working offer to help retain and attract talent, competitive pay for the skills required and a public sector-wide approach to health and wellbeing to address high rates of burnout.
The motion also included pledges to campaign for a rise in the national minimum wage to end in-work poverty, an end to pay discrimination and “radical improvements to collective bargaining structures”, particularly in the public sector.
Speaking in favour of the motion, PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “We expect this Labour government to end austerity in public services” and argued that recent pay deals were not enough, with pay restoration needed across the public sector. She called on the Labour government to “lead by example” on equal pay.
Other speakers in favour of the motion included Jill Taylor of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, Jane Peckham of NASUWT, Adam Sutcliffe of EIS, Ellie Wade of Prospect, Kathy Smith of Unite, President of the NEU Phil Clark, and FDA president Margaret Haig, who argued that the public sector has been “treated as second class for too long”.
‘The NHS cannot survive on kindness alone’
A motion calling for fair pay, terms and conditions for NHS staff, put forward by the Royal College of Midwives and supported by Unison, also received the support of delegates – calling on the TUC to work with NHS workers to ensure the government implements an above-inflation pay rise for all NHS staff in 2024/25 as a “first step to addressing real-terms pay decline” and commit to a clear timeline for restoring NHS pay to competitive levels.
Speaking in favour of the motion, Chrissy Walsh of the Royal College of Midwives said: “The NHS cannot survive on kindness alone. Our NHS staff cannot provide patient-centred care if we do not have employee-centred employment.”
Other speakers in favour of the motion included Martin Jones of the British Dietetic Association, Tanya Pretswell of Unison, Dean Rodgers of the Society of Radiographers, Lesley Mansell of Unite, Gary Boyle of Aslef and Martin Furlong of the Royal College of Podiatry.
Union representatives also backed calls to support the development of a fair pay agreement in adult social care, campaign for a new independent whistleblowing agency, lobby the government to strengthen the Civil Service Commission for more ethical government, and demand a long-term sustained investment in the fire and rescue service from the new Labour administration.
General secretary of the TUC Paul Nowak will address delegates tomorrow as representatives debate and discuss motions on education, rail nationalisation, and the New Deal for Working People.
‘You are our partners in delivering change in government’: Ellie Reeves at TUC Congress 2024
:Ellie Reeves has thanked trade unions for their support at the general election and vowed to always be on the side of working people.
In an address to delegates at the TUC Congress in Brighton, the Labour Party chair said that successive Conservative governments had trampled over employment rights, but said that Labour would offer something different.
She said: “We are ending long-standing industrial disputes, getting round the table and engaging in negotiations in a grown-up way.
“We’ve honoured the recommendations for public sector payrolls after years of Tory contempt, and we will deliver the New Deal for Working People, banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending fire and rehire, making flexible working a day one right and new rights to trade union access to workplaces.”
Reeves said that the Labour Party has an intrinsic link with the trade union movements after they came together to form “the only party in British history to truly represent those workers”.
“We’ve had our disagreements before, we will again, but never doubt the Labour Party under Keir Starmer’s leadership will always be on the side of working people,” she said.
Reeves said that the “scorched earth policy” of successive Conservative governments makes the party’s relationship with trade unions even more important in the goal to deliver economic growth.
She said: “This will require the full force of the labour movement working in unison for the good of the country. We’ve done it before in 1945, 1964 and 1997 – now we must do it again.”
Reeves reflected on her time as a trade union lawyer and said: “Defending workers’ rights runs through my DNA.”
Addressing trade union delegates, she said: “You were are our partners as we took on the Conservatives from opposition, and now we are in government you are our partners in helping deliver the change that working people desperately need – securing our New Deal and rebuilding public services after 14 years of Tory devastation.
“Make no mistake, this is the worst inheritance of any incoming government in living memory. It will be hard, and there will be tough choices, but working together we can restore our country, we can rebuild trust and we can give Britain its future back.”
TUC Congress 2024: “You must offer hope” – President’s message to Labour government
TUC President Matt Wrack has told the annual meeting of the Trades Union Congress that the new Labour government must “offer hope”, arguing that “people cannot take more of the same”.
Wrack called on unions to continue campaigning hard to ensure that improvements to workers’ rights are delivered and anti-union legislation repealed.
He argued that there “are powerful forces in play which will seek to resist measures to strengthen our unions or to shift economic power in favour of the majority”.
He also said that unions must not “miss the opportunity” presented by the new government, arguing: “We already hear some people saying there is little difference between politicians. That is a mistake as serious as complacency”.
Wrack, who has served as general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) since 2005, is at the end of his one-year term as TUC President and his service in this role was the subject of a motion of thanks at the congress in Brighton.
Wrack also spoke about the final report of the Grenfell Inquiry which was published this week. “I visited that fire as operations were still underway,” he said, praising the work of firefighters and others who worked in the aftermath of the disaster.
“Almost to a man and a woman, the people entering that inferno that night, risking their own lives in desperate attempts to save others, were trade unionists, members of the Fire Brigades Union”, he said.
Wrack cited Margaret Thatcher’s drive to promote profit and David Cameron’s war against “excessive health and safety” as being responsible for events like Grenfell, describing it as the result of a “grotesque ideology” which “has created a building safety crisis affecting millions.”
The FBU general secretary also described himself as an internationalist and sent “solidarity to the Palestinian people”, saying of the war in Gaza that for the new Labour government “it should not be difficult to take the right side and make the right decisions”.
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