London regional Labour Party motion on strike solidarity
Time For Real Change is dismayed that UNISON delegates to the London regional Labour Party conference spoke and voted against an important motion on strike solidarity (see below for wording).
The motion supported the strike action currently taking place, including that by our own members. It defended the right to strike and called on Labour MPs to attend picket lines. Time For Real Change views the motion as basic trade union solidarity and would urge all members to support this and similar motions. It was therefore even more concerning that in speaking against it, the delegates chose to attack UNITE. UNISON delegates falsely suggested that the motion was encouraging illegal secondary strike action.
It is Time For Real Change in UNISON, and that must include the Labour Link!
Time For Real Change welcomes Labour MPs on picket lines and calls for all Labour MPs to support our members and members of other unions taking strike action. The motion was lost by just over 1% on a card vote: had UNISON voted for the motion it would have passed.
Time For Real Change supports this motion. Time For Real Change stands in full solidarity with our comrade trade unions in struggle, including UNITE.
Time For Real Change calls on all wings of the Labour Party including representatives in London - councillors, members of the Greater London Assembly and MPs - to openly support the industrial action taken by trade unionists and to join picket lines of striking workers.
Time For Real Change also calls on members of UNISON in London who are members of the Labour Party to get active within Labour Link structures to prevent such disgraceful lack of solidarity and undermining of our members in dispute from happening again.
Strikes (Composited Motion)
Leyton & Wanstead, Tottenham Unite
Conference notes:
We already have some of the toughest anti-trade union laws in Europe and now the Tories have announced new anti-strike legislation and want to bring in a minimum service level bill which will mean unions could be sued and workers such as nurses, bus and train drivers could be sacked if they go on strike.
We welcome the Labour Party’s response that any new anti-strike legislation introduced would be repealed and the proposals set out in Labour's ‘New Deal for Working People’ where Labour commits within 100 days of taking office to:
Repealing anti-trade union legislation, including the Trade Union Act 2016.
Use public procurement to support good work.
Oversee the biggest wave of insourcing of public services for a generation.
Fair Pay Agreements will be negotiated through sectoral collective bargaining.
Ban zero hours contracts.
Outlaw fire and rehire.
Close gender, ethnicity, disability pay gaps.
However, our members find themselves in the middle of a cost of living and energy crisis. Inflation is running at more than 10 per cent which disproportionately affects the most deprived. This follows more than a decade of real-terms pay cuts for many workers and severe cuts in the provision of public services. At the same time concentrations of wealth in London's financial centres and wealthier areas are increasing.
Strong trade unions are vital to advance the interests of the working class. In London, one of the most expensive cities to live in, workers are taking industrial action to protect their pay, terms, and conditions and public services. Workers cannot wait until the next General Election for a Labour government, they need to act now.
We applaud organised Labour fighting back and wining across London. Unite bus drivers, security guards, airport workers, charity workers, and bin workers have taken industrial action winning substantial pay rises.
Workers across London are fighting to protect jobs, pay, conditions and services including nurses, ambulance drivers, postal workers, rail, tube and bus workers, college and university teachers, and civil servants. Their example demonstrates working people can be active agents of social change. Growing impoverishment and rising inequality can be challenged.
Conference recognises that strikes are a symptom of the crisis – not the cause. We welcome:
Union campaigns to address falling living standards, (including the TUC‘s proposals to increase the minimum wage to £15.00ph).
Raise Universal Credit and legacy benefits to 80% of the national Living Wage.
The Mayor’s calls for free school meals for primary school children; for private rents to be frozen; and introducing a windfall tax.
Conference reaffirms:
Support for Labour’s response to repeal any new anti-strike laws and the New Employment Rights Green Paper and welcomes the commitment from the Labour leadership to its full implementation within 100 days of taking office.
Conference calls on:
All wings of the London Labour Party including representatives in London - councillors, members of the Greater London Assembly and MPs - to openly support the industrial action taken by trade unionists, to join picket lines of striking workers.