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10
July 2008
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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