Focus: Implications of ‘Brexit’ for trade union rights

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6 Volume 23 Issue 2 2016 ‘Leave’ won the referendum vote by a margin of 52 to 48 percent in an average turnout of 72.2 percent (over 30 million people) the highest in a UK-wide vote for decades paign saw eleventh hour negotiations between Cameron’s Tory government and the largest Labour-affiliated unions to scrap government plans in the Trade Union Bill for abolition of automatic payment of union subscriptions through payroll, to delay proposed introduction of ‘opt-in-only’ arrangements for trade union funding of the Labour party and for an e-voting trial for strike ballots. In return for these measures, unions agreed to increase funding to Labour’s pro-EU campaign from £75,000 to £1.7 million. It is unclear whether the deal will survive the wreckage of the referendum result. David Cameron resigned as prime minister the next morning. His Chancellor and chief political ‘strategist’, George Osborne who unwisely promised a ‘punishment budget’ if Britain voted to leave the EU, was unceremoniously sacked by Cameron’s successor Theresa May on taking office. As is now well known, ‘Leave’ won the referendum vote by a margin of 52 to 48 percent in an average turnout of 72.2 percent (over 30 million people) the highest in a UK-wide vote since the 1992 general election almost a quarter of a century earlier. Analysis of the voting patterns revealed in the referendum result demonstrates a majority of working class voters, particularly in Britain’s former industrial heartlands; the north of England, I n a superficial sense Britain’s vote to leave the European Union changed nothing. The day after the referendum workers in the UK continued to experience the ‘most restrictive laws on trade unions in the Western world’ as Tony Blair once boasted. David Cameron’s 2016 Trade Union Act reinforced this by introducing new curbs on collective action (including a 50 percent threshold on ballot turnouts, doubling strike notification periods from 7 to 14 days and identifying ‘picket supervisors’ to police). Yet, Britain’s decision to leave the EU confounded the expectations of financial markets, political commentators and the advice of Britain’s TUC alike. It was the most significant setback since 16 September 1992 (‘Black Wednesday’) to the strategy of the UK’s largest financial and corporate interests to promote integration and completion of the EU single market in the interests of Foreign Direct Investment, opening up the public sector to market competition and ‘wage competitiveness’. During the referendum, only four trade unions (RMT and ASLEF representing transport and railworkers , the bakers’ union BFAWU and NIPSA the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance) officially called for a vote to leave the EU. On the other side of the debate, the TUC and some of Britain’s largest trade unions endorsed the campaign for a vote for Britain to Remain a member of the EU. Indeed, the referendum camFOCUS ❐ BREXIT Implications of ‘Brexit’ for trade union rights ALEX GORDON is a former President of the RMT railworkers’ union ■ The threat to democracy and from the far right: the majority of the laws which affect our lives are now made in the EU and not the UK. This is a major problem because a distant link between law makers and the electorate creates a vacuum which could be exploited by the far right. Big decisions such as TTIP are being made with very little regard for democratic oversight and cannot be reversed at the ballot box. ■ Internationalism not isolationism: we believe workers throughout the world, in Britain, America and Asia, as well as Europe, have more in common with each other than the heads of big business in their own countries. Out of the EU and into the world. ■ No fortress Britain. No Fortress Europe: we don’t believe Britain should be an island unto itself. Our country, and indeed many countries, are nations of immigrants.We want everyone to get a fair rate for the job and everyone to have the same rights at work.We don’t support fortress Britain and so we don’t support fortress Europe.We profoundly regret that children and families fleeing poverty, persecution...