Ed M to defend ‘secure’ union link at TUC
12:15 am - September 13th 2011
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Ed Miliband will today declare that Britain faces a “fork in the road” over the direction of economic policy in a speech at the TUC conference where he will say government, business and union leaders must all shoulder new challenges in the years ahead.
Unless we are willing to challenge many of the assumptions on which economic policy has been based for a generation, we will fail the next generation.
He will also focus on the economy:
Financial services are important to Britain and will continue to be so, but unless we broaden our economic base and introduce reforms to tackle irresponsibility of bankers, we will be exposed to crisis as we were in 2007.
While jobs must be our priority, we must ensure they are decent jobs at decent wages and opportunities are extended to all our young people.
We need to reward entrepreneurship and wealth creation, but if we just shrug our shoulders about inequality – not just between the top and the bottom and but for the squeezed middle too – it will cause further problems for both our society and our economy.
These present huge challenges for all of us: For the next Labour government. For business. And for the trade union movement.
On Labour’s union link he will say:
Of course, there are times when you and I will disagree. You will speak your mind. And so will I.
Our link is secure enough, mature enough, to deal with disagreement. The relationship between party and unions is not about romance or nostalgia. It is about respect and shared values. It is a relationship in which we listen to each other when we disagree. And we always know that what unites us is greater than what divides us.
The reality is that away from the headlines, the new offer you are already making to members is about “getting on, not getting even”.
The challenge for unions is this: to recognize that Britain needs to raise its game if we are to meet the challenges of the future and to get private sector employers in the new economy to recognize that you are relevant to that future.
Just 15% of the private sector workforce are members of trade unions. But Unions can offer businesses the prospect of better management, better relationships – trust. Britain needs you to take your place as partners in the new economy.
In a wide-ranging speech, Mr Miliband will reiterate that Labour would have had to make tough spending decisions and acknowledge the last government did not spend every penny wisely before echoing Ed Balls’s call for a plan B to get the economy growing again.
Highlighting the Government’s decision to cut corporation tax for the banks and George Obsorne’s “obsession” with removing the 50p rate, he will say the Tories offer only greater insecurity for the hard-working majority in Britain with plans to make it easier to sack workers.
The message is clear: It’s one rule for them. Another rule for everyone else.
The speech will be made at Congress House in central London, at the annual TUC Congress event.
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Reader comments
He wouldn’t have to even mention the union link being secure if he and Blair weren’t so happy to please the right wing press by throwing them some red meat union bashing.
Strengthen the union link, make a point of it as the necessary counterbalance to the corporate influence on the Tories (and, shamefully, on Labour)
The reality is that away from the headlines, the new offer you are already making to members is about “getting on, not getting even” – per E Miliband
I would much rather the Labour Party commit to narrow the income disparity between top and bottom, and set out policies to achieve that. The gap has been widening for decades (including under Labour), benefits now routinely subsidise low-wage employers, and the proportion of GDP going into wages has fallen while dividends rise.
A commitment and a strategy to distribute wealth more fairly might go some way to reversing the collapse in membership of the Labour Party. As it is, the link between TU members and the Party is crumbling as they see it as unimportant (or positively unhelpful) to their aspirations.
Ed’s speech remains in the old Wilson/Callaghan mould of a business/union partnership with no challenge to the wealth disparity. Why would a trade unionist vote for that?
The TUC were right to barrack Ed Miliband – it is surely about time that Labour started to take the initiative on the economy – I mean how many more disastrous economic predictions and statistics do we need before Labour fully embraces the need to stimulate the economy?
In the following article I outline what Ed M should have said to the TUC:
http://www.allthatsleft.co.uk/2011/09/11349/
There’s a shorter message Miliband avoided saying, but it’s in the body language: We need you money but otherwise you’re an embarassment. The rest is fluff.
Labour and Unions need to work hard to be relevant. Labour have made a pig’s ear of being Tory Lite and Unions have failed to adapt to the modern work environment.
It’s a sad state of affairs, but hopefully we are at the nadir. While the right has its radical enthusiasm it’s as mad as any 80s lefty radical and will likely fade into irrelevance quickly enough.
As a union member and Labour party member I thought Ed made some valid points that the general secretaries of labour affiliated unions have to take note of. They have to begin to put significant resources into organising those millions in the private sector not in unions. Lets be honest the most progressive aspects of the employment legislation introduced by New Labour was a result of EU directives and the party did nothing to stem the tide of precarious employment. Labour hasn’t, and never will, listen to unions until we again become a mass movement representing workers across all sectors of the economy.
Solution? Affiliates such as UNITE, UNISON, CWU and GMB should reduce donations to the party to 25% of what they currently are and divert the remaining 75% into recruiting and organising workers in non-unionised sectors. In addition, restrict the 25% to donations directly to Labour MPs campaigning on, and supporting issues such as regulating precarious employment, trade union access to workers in non-unionised companies/sectors, getting rid of loan sharks and campaigning in favour of a massive increase in social housing.
Labour, and anyone else for that matter, will only listen when unions have got the members
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
Ed Miliband to defend 'secure' union link in TUC speech http://t.co/Cp47ZeL
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Luke Bozier
Ed Miliband will later say that more private businesses should be unionised, more people should join unions. http://t.co/hnOB4je
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Michael Rubin
Ed Miliband will later say that more private businesses should be unionised, more people should join unions. http://t.co/hnOB4je
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STUC
Ed Miliband to defend 'secure' union link in TUC speech http://t.co/Cp47ZeL
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A Better Way
Ed Miliband to defend 'secure' union link in TUC speech http://t.co/Cp47ZeL
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Sairah Tariq
Ed M to defend 'secure, mature' links between Labour and the unions at TUC Conference
http://t.co/YI4ZrSd via (@libcon) -
H. O.
Ed M to defend ‘secure’ union link at TUC | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/ncUlH2F via @libcon
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James Bull
Ed Miliband to defend 'secure' union link in TUC speech http://t.co/Cp47ZeL
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DJE
Ed Miliband to defend 'secure' union link in TUC speech http://t.co/Cp47ZeL
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Alex Braithwaite
Ed M to defend ‘secure’ union link at TUC | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/Rd2tCSz via @libcon
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