David Cameron has launched an inquiry into trade union tactics after the dispute at Grangemouth petrochemical plant. This enquiry will report back to give the Tories a Union Bashing opportunity nearer the General Election. A living wage is fast becoming a distance dream under this government.
As a Labour party and Unite member all I see is the continuation of Thatchers policies as council houses were flogged off and all the public utilities sold to the highest bidder. This is continuing as the Royal Mail was sold off last month. The Tories will always try and scare people about the connection between Labour and the Trade Unions, but Labour was born from the despair of dreadful working conditions a century ago and we are moving backwards as a society as the British Chamber of Commerce pressures the government for company tax breaks using the excuse that it will help companies take on more staff. If that was the case then why not move the companies HQ oversees, like Google and Startbucks then pay no tax at all!
They will be no enquiry on the donations to the Tories from bankers, hedge fund managers and the bosses of big business as they seek to chip away at hard fought workers terms and conditions in the race to the bottom for British workers. No enquiry on the landowners who make millions from Solar Farms and Wind Turbine Sites. No enquiry on companies who recruit overseas workers to undercut and displace local employees.
This new attack on Trade Unions is spearheaded by the posh Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude. He was the one that encouraged people to store up petrol at the last tanker drivers dispute, resulting in a mother being badly burned in her home after taking his ‘strike busting’ advice.
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| The 'Jerry Can Jerk' Maude |
The shocking sum is almost eight times the average £5,600 civil service employee’s pot.
If anyone thought that the planned strikes were nothing more than an inconvenient regarding child care that day or just public sector workers crying ‘Wolf’ over their pension changes then they need to think again.
We have in this collation government a collection of millionaires, members of the aristocracy and wealthy business people waging an all out war on the British workers. David Cameron him self is worth £30M and George Osbourne £5M but he will inherit a lot more. Nick Clegg and his Spanish lawyer wife and simply loaded and so far removed from the day to day financial crisis most people face daily.
Now whether these workers are highway engineers, dustbin men, nurses, teachers or headmasters; they are being targeting for the mistakes of the bankers, hedge fund managers and others in the financial sector.
Good public sector pension are in the front line of the battlefield to be overrun then they will move on to the conditions in work place.
As the Business Secretary Vince Cable and the Chancellor George Osborne announced that the Government intends to start the dismantling many of the hard fought and long-held employment rights won over many years so that companies could have a more ‘flexible’ and ‘dismissive’ approach towards their employees; i.e. to make it easier for bosses to sack there workers. If these measures gets on the statute books then every employer will be able to tear up their HR policies and replace them with the simple phrase:- "Do as you are told or you are fired". This is just another example of the government being paid by business and applying policy for business needs only. These changes will make it harder for hundreds of thousands of workers to bring cases of victimisation, unfairness and bullying at work and these changes will affect all of us today and our children and grandchildren tomorrow, with all the hard won advances in the working environment starting to evaporate as uncertainty and insecurity become the norm in the workplace.
It should come as no surprise to people that the Labour party was born from the Trade Union movement, that’s the reason the Labour party came into existence. People today often assume that they can look after their own working environment and take the required action to resolve any disputes or misunderstandings between themselves and their employer. But going back a few centuries and following the abolition of slavery the common British worker became the new workhouse slaves as the mighty industrial revolution unfolded. The British Empire emerged and great wealth for some was created but this was at a cost as the largely rural population moved into the new industrial towns to look for work.
The birth of the Trade Union movement stems from the Tolpuddle Martyrs, at the turn of the 19th life as an English farm worker in the 1830s was dismal. Rent and a basic diet of tea, bread and potatoes would cost a typical family 13 shillings a week. But exploitative landowners paid their workers as little as 9, 8, even 7 shillings a week. But when, in 1834, labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset met to form a 'Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers’ and demanded 10 shillings a week. However a local landowner reported them, and under an obscure 1797 law they were arrested and transported to Australia.
Now the Prime Minster plans to re-negotiate the UK’s relationship with the EU in our interest, but the truth is that he will want a deal that will go against the interests of ordinary working people. Mr Cameron himself has said, “I do not believe it is appropriate for social and employment legislation to be dealt with at the European level. It will be a top priority for the next Conservative government to restore social and employment legislation to national control.” The Tory vision for the future of Europe sounds like turning the clock back to the days before working people had their basic rights guaranteed. Some of the hundreds of rights at work that have been negotiated between European governments, and are guaranteed by European Law that could be at risk if David Cameron gets his way include:
Four weeks paid leave
Rights for mothers (not to be sacked for being pregnant, paid time off for ante-natal appointments)
Equal treatment for workers employed through an agency
Tea and lunch breaks during the working day
The right to a day off every weekend.
All the Liberal Democrats like Vince Cable, Danny Alexander and Yeovil's David Laws as Liberal should be ashamed of the company they have been keeping.
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| The Lib Dems Gave Cameron the Key to Downing Street! |
How can a true liberal party seek to crack down on basic human rights? The long battle over the rights of employees is centuries old and littered with deaths from the Tolpuddle deportation, starvation, illness and dangerous working environments.Trade Unions have been campaigning for improved protections for UK workers who are currently the easiest and cheapest to sack in the whole of the EU. The Labour party has been too timid to openly support the people that paid to set up the party in the first place and these same people are still continuing to support the Labour party financially. No one wants a series of wild cat strikes and a rerun to industrial warfare of the 70’s, but neither do people want the eradication of the basic employee rights.
At the dawn of what was hoped would be a new age at the end of World War Two with the birth of the NHS, most European countries included trade union involvement in all industrial matters with boardroom representation, but in the UK the then Federation of British Industry (FBI); now renamed and rebranded as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) wanted no role formally from the trade union movement. The Labour party was the only way forward for workers to be included in the process, unlike our EU partners and this still remains so today as British workers become the poor man of Europe.
These changes will affect all workers today and our children and grandchildren tomorrow and into the future. With all the hard won advances in the working environment starting to evaporate as uncertainty and insecurity become the norm in the workplace. The rich get richer on the backs of the poorest and least able in society, where Trade Unions are a dirty word and get in the way of companies profits.
At the dawn of what was hoped would be a new age at the end of World War Two with the birth of the NHS, most European countries included trade union involvement in all industrial matters with boardroom representation, but in the UK the then Federation of British Industry (FBI); now renamed and rebranded as the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) wanted no role formally from the trade union movement. The Labour party was the only way forward for workers to be included in the process, unlike our EU partners and this still remains so today as British workers become the poor man of Europe.
These changes will affect all workers today and our children and grandchildren tomorrow and into the future. With all the hard won advances in the working environment starting to evaporate as uncertainty and insecurity become the norm in the workplace. The rich get richer on the backs of the poorest and least able in society, where Trade Unions are a dirty word and get in the way of companies profits.
