In the coming year, we as trade unionists and socialists face serious challenges, but also opportunities to build our labour movement, writes Maria Exall

Challenges to union rights

High up on the list of challenges, and immediate, is a defence of union rights. We must defeat the announced extension of restrictions in talking strike action and any other new anti-union laws.  We need to build a strong, united and creative campaign to challenge this profoundly anti-worker Conservative Government.

As well as defeating any legislation put forward in the Houses of Parliament, we need to mobilise the whole of our movement, in national demonstrations and rallies, yes, but also in our local communities and in wider civil society.

The Conservatives wish to abolish the right to take effective strike action because they want to bury the consequences of their economic policies, namely austerity, inflation and Brexit. They will use their Parliamentary majority to legislate away the response of organised labour to their economic failures. This is not just an issue for the trade union movement but for all who care about democracy in this country and the possibility of a more equal society.

Alongside the important campaign to defend union rights, it is necessary for us to show it is possible to transform working people’s lives through changes to our political economy – that there is something worth fighting for.

Defending workers’ rights to call employers and the Government to account for the  cost of living crisis goes hand in hand with tackling the epidemic food and fuel poverty in this country. We need a Government that takes responsibility to deliver the essentials of life for all, and that means radical reform of our economy.

During the strikes we have seen support for our actions in local communities. Trade unions should be open to learning from the work done by faith groups and other community organisations, particularly those giving practical support to those in poverty. Equally civil society groups have a lot to learn from union policy tackling in-work poverty and our demands – not only a £15 minimum wage and reform of in-work benefits – but also the need for collective bargaining in the workplace which increases pay and improves our working lives for many millions of low-paid workers.

Growing our movement

There are opportunities for trade unions to grow membership and organisation based on the solidarity that has developed in and between different sectors during recent periods of industrial action. The need for a renewal of lay structures across the movement including more grassroots trade union reps and shop stewards is essential for that growth to happen.

A key focus for building our movement must also be recognising the diversity of the British working class and tackling discrimination. The union movement has had a deep commitment to fighting racism, renewed by the TUC’s Anti Racism Taskforce. The racial inequalities in our society were exposed during the COVID pandemic and are an urgent priority for the TUC.

The COVID pandemic also exposed other key areas of inequality in our society. Disabled people were the ones who suffered the effects of COVID most and this was reflected in workplaces where many were shielding or supported those who were. The effects of long COVID are still very much with us.

The demand for affordable childcare and flexibility at workalso became increasingly pertinent during the COVID pandemic. This has been a longstanding demand of the trade union women’s movement and becomes daily more relevant as the price of childcare accelerates. We need workplaces which are accessible for all workers with caring responsibilities, and a culture shift so that Management do not just treat us instrumentally as economic units but as people with legitimate obligations outside of work.    

As part of their desperate clinging on to power the Conservatives are stirring up prejudices particularly against immigrants and trans and non-binary people. There is an ugly demonisation of trans and non-binary people within our mainstream press and from far right groups, and if we do not stand up against this we will see a roll back of LGB+ rights too. The TUC supports progressive reform on trans rights and in solidarity with trans and non-binary workers. The Tories’ divide and rule tactics must be resisted by working class unity.

Unions and the Labour Party

Trade union campaigns for workers’ rights and a transformed political economy are an opportunity for the Labour Party. A strong campaigning trade union movement can help deliver a Labour Party Manifesto with appeal to tens of millions of working class voters. If the voice of the affiliated unions are listened to within the Party, we can have a successful Manifesto and victory at the next General Election.

As well as the policy on positive workers’ rights in Labour’s New Deal for Workers, it is necessary for Labour to listen to trade union policy in the areas of political economy. Labour should reverse privatisation and outsourcing of public services and demand proper funding of health education and social care. We must also campaign for strategic public ownership – of transport, in the energy and water industries, of Royal Mail and in telecommunications.  Trade union policy on how to achieve a just transition to a green economy and creating green jobs must be integrated into Labour’s approach to a green new deal.

Socialists and Trade Unions

The link between affiliated trade unions and the Labour party is a key arena to win political gains for the British working class. In this next period when Labour looks increasingly likely to win office, it is important to concentrate on what gains will improve working people’s lives in a lasting way.  We have to fight back against Tory austerity 2.0, the appalling increase in poverty as well as attacks on the trade union movement itself, but we need the transformative changes that are possible with a Labour Government.

Maria Exall is the President of the TUC.