Yesterday at the TUC Congress, moving a motion on council funding, Sharon Graham, Unite General Secretary, said: ‘We in the trade unions have enormous power. Workers have the power to act. We stand firmly with all workers on strike, with the RMT Tube workers and the Birmingham bin workers.
‘These workers have a mandate to strike into the New Year. We cannot be silent because a councillor wears a red rosette. This Labour government has not acted for the poorest in society and have been attacking pensioners. What are they doing?
‘Different choices must be made. Those choices could not be clearer than at Birmingham City Council. They are trying to force through an £8,000 a year pay cut. Nearly a quarter of these workers’ wages. At the same time, they are spending millions of pounds on scab labour to cross picket lines.
‘As far as the Employment Rights Bill, they want to water it down so that councils in debt can fire and rehire. They have said that they will limit it.
‘I thought that it was banned. They cannot be allowed to get away with this. If they do get away with it they will come for us, the whole working class. Victory to all strikers. Victory to the Tube strikers, victory to the Birmingham bin workers.’
A motion from the University and College Union (UCU) demanding the cutting of the military budget was carried, supported by several other unions including the NEU, NASUWT, Unison, and RMT – but it was opposed by the GMB, Unite and Prospect unions.
Moving a motion on employment rights, Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said: ‘The POA is fighting to restore our right to strike. There is no way that if we fight on our own as a union that this Starmer Labour government will restore that right.
‘It was under a previous Tory government that our right to strike was withdrawn. We had our trade union rights ripped away from us. I am asking that the TUC General Council steps up to demand from the government our right. We ask all unions to support our fight. We are going to send a letter round to all trade unions with which we can petition the government.’
Sarah Wooley, from the BFAWU bakers union, said: ‘The Employment Rights Bill falls far short of what workers want. They are not going to get what they need as there are several amendments which will water down the bill.
‘It does not bring an end to the scourge of zero-hours contracts which employers use to exploit the most vulnerable workers. We must organise action to challenge the government.
‘We demand that the TUC fights against the most repressive employers who, unless we do enough, will continue to exploit workers particularly young and overseas workers.’
Steve Croke from the CWU said: ‘I thought that when the Labour government was elected they would at least do something, anything, to help workers in terms of trade union laws, and to their shame they have done nothing at all.
‘In fact, they have made things worse with cuts and privatisation. They have not repealed the anti-trade union laws and the Employment Rights Bill goes nowhere near far enough.
‘The Labour government’s new deal for workers is not good enough, not tackling zero-hours for instance. We demand better.’
