10 July 2008
Brown Flies Off in the Wrong Direction
On the plane to Japan on 6 July heading for the G8 summit, Gordon Brown held court with journalists “insisting he would resist union pressure to make strike action easier” according to the FT’s man on board. “There can be no question of any reintroduction of secondary picketing rights” said Brown. Not even in spite of the UK laws being in breach on international law on fundamental human rights?
There will be “no return to the 1970s, 80s or even 90s when it comes to union rights” he says. This is not just resisting union pressure and sound bites for business, and is more than a slap in the face for the unions. This union bashing rhetoric, reminiscent of Thatcher goes back to the 70s and won’t get Labour re-elected. What is needed now more than ever is for Brown to tell people the true value of unions to society and their force for good in promoting democracy, dignity & equality as well as fighting poverty for the young, old and those at work.
Brown says he doesn’t want the unions to ask for union rights in the National Policy Forum at Warwick, but to focus on fighting poverty. But Gordon, stronger collective rights reflecting established fundamental rights cut poverty, targets do not.
Forget the sound bites look to the 2002 report by the Managing Director for Human Development at the World Bank, Zafiris Tzannatos, entitled: "Unions and Collective Bargaining - Economic Effects in a Global Environment". This in depth report reviewed more than a thousand studies on the effects of unions and collective bargaining and found that coordinated collective bargaining tended to be associated with lower and less persistent unemployment, lower earnings inequality, and fewer and shorter strikes.
Brown went on to say that “The countries that prosper in future will be those that combine fairness with flexibility, to ensure full employment”. Where is the evidence for that? Why does the PM face rising unemployment bringing Labour within 300,000 of the 1,600,000 that they attacked as unacceptable under the Tories? (according to figures from the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion). Last week 2,500 jobs were lost in construction alone.
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