The significance of the British Labour conference
Labour and the unions
11 October 2024
The TUC’s general secretary, Paul Nowak, has made great claims for the new Workers’ Rights Bill being introduced this week. The deal is linked to a public sector pay deal which was the minimum that would get through a union vote and has not been accepted in many areas, especially in the NHS.
According to Nowak, the Bill will turn the tables on the Conservatives’ “low rights low pay economy” and will “make work pay again”. The Bill will grant new rights on maternity leave and sick pay from day one of employment, ban zero-hours contracts unless requested by a worker, and end fire-and-rehire practices.
There will be a review of parental leave, bereavement leave and access to workplaces for trade union recruitment.
The Bill will give new “day one” rights, including maternity leave, which usually requires at least six months’ service, as well as sick pay, which currently people are not entitled to until the fourth day of their illness, and a right to claim unfair dismissal from day one, rather than the current two years. The Low Pay Commission is to be beefed up and will include consideration of the cost of living.
What gives? Is the government that cuts winter fuel support for pensioners and freezes child benefit with a two child policy the government that will usher in a new dawn for the workers? In fact a number of unions are withholding support.
The bill is expected to be the first step in a long process that will include extensive consultations, so immediate change will be limited. Labour have already made major concessions to employers and there have been many rows with the unions.
Some rights that were initially promised when the policy was announced by Angela Rayner in opposition are likely to come in the form of guidance rather than legislation. There will be many exemptions that employers can take advantage of.
As with all deals under Labour, what is delivered will turn out to be much less than promised. What will remain invariant will be union support for the government and whatever remains of the deal.
In fact many British and Irish socialists have been left confused by the evolution of trade union positions. It’s not so long ago that a whole series of strikes were ongoing. Mick Lynch of the RMT rail union won popularity over his trenchant defence of workers rights. However, immediately following the strikes, he appeared on union platforms calling for Labour party unity in the election – in other words, unity behind Sir Kier Starmer!
But this is the central strategy of the trade union leaderships – to get a deal. Leftists believe that unions leaders, with a bit of persuasion, will stage all out strikes to confront employers and government. They imagine that unions hold great power and revolutionary potential. The power of capital is balanced by the power of the worker to withdraw labour
That’s not the case. The labourers on strike lose their livelihood and the employer retains great reserves. It’s believed that the power of the employer can be overcome by a broader combination of unions and a general strike, but behind the employers stands the capitalist state, ready to use immense force.
The unions learned long ago that trade union power was usually not sufficient. The British Labour Party is founded on the need for a workers’ party and won mass support on the back of reforms based on a successful capitalism. British capitalism is not successful today.
At all costs the union leaders want a deal. They didn’t support the mild reformism of Corbyn. Even Momentum, specifically set up to support him, sold him down the river in the name of realism. The real task was to win over the Labour right. We ended up with Starmer.
The situation is even worse in the Irish state. The art of the deal extends through all of the economy and politics. In the name of social partnership no-strike pay deals stretch back through decades and are accompanied by invisible unions in the face of a mass housing crisis, racism and capitulation to US military aggression in Europe and in west Asia. The northern unions have tied themselves to reform through the local Stormont administration, even though the signs are that it will not go beyond a sectarian division of the spoils.
The original intuition of the unions was correct. To tip the balance in class struggle a working class party is needed. That party must be revolutionary and explain that capitalism is in its death throes and must be overthrown.
The starting point is to say what you see. The British state broke from Europe in order to drive down regulation as part of a determination to force down living standards. Capitalist profit has declined to the point where Labour leaders are forced to follow the Tories with exactly the same policy and the union leaders accept the scraps from Starmer’s offers. Most current leftists were unable to oppose Brexit and now ignore the economic reality, calling for a tax on the rich where expropriation of production and distribution is required.
A socialist understanding would be the beginning of a revolutionary programme. It would be a sounding board around which workers could begin to contrast their future under capitalism with an alternative socialist future. That’s not the same a collective decision to move into action. It is however a necessary, if not sufficient step.
We are confident that the workers will rise. When they do, movement, party and unions will function together to change history.