Decent pay and conditions for working people didn't simply fall out of the sky.
Decent pay and conditions for working people didn’t simply drop out of the sky
Reading some of the reporting on today’s strike action by public sector workers, you could easily believe that it was trade unionists who caused the worst financial crash since the Great Depression.
It wasn’t of course, but that’s not stopped the right making use of a good crisis to demonise trade unionists and paint unions as outdated and led by ‘dinosaurs’.
Conservative MPs often make the charge that the Labour Party is ‘bankrolled’ by the unions:
“More than half of Labour MPs have had their campaigns bankrolled (that word again) by the trade union threatening to disrupt the lives of millions and bring our economy to its knees,” was how Baroness Warsi scornfully phrased it earlier in this parliament.
Yet when people describe the Labour Party as ‘bankrolled’ by the unions they are actually saying that working people pay for the party – which is surely how you’d want politics to work under any system.
No, what the right are really doing when they attempt to play off the public against trade unionists is trying to turn the public on itself. After all, the ‘millions’ whose ‘lives are disrupted’ by strikes also presumably have jobs themselves – jobs with pay and conditions which have at some point been boosted by the existence of unions.
And that’s the nub of it: however fashionable it may be to decry the trade unions as relics and ‘dinosaurs’ of a bygone era, in reality a renaissance in trade unionism is long overdue. Economic growth may have returned but average wages have been falling for years now compared to inflation.
A common myth about trade unionism is that decent pay and conditions are won by bosses being kind rather than workers being rebellious. But history as well as extensive research contradicts this assumption. A recent study from Manchester University shows that countries with a stronger culture of collective bargaining tend on average to have higher minimum wages.
The widening gap between rich and poor in the past 30 years also reflects the loss of democratic restraint on those at the top. According to a YouGov poll from April, 56 per cent of people would like to see a more equal sharing of income – even if it reduced the total amount of Britain’s GDP.
In other words, millions of people – even many of those inconvenienced by today’s strike – want to see reduced inequality – and trade unions are one of the best ways of achieving that. As the graph demonstrates, countries with strong trade union movements tend to be more equal:
As for the government’s argument that we need a 50 per cent ballot threshold in order for any strike action to be legal: what’s telling is that the people most keen on this have nothing to say on increasing the methods available to unions to ballot members. In other words, they have no interest in making it easier for members to vote in strike ballots, they simply want to make it more difficult to take any kind of industrial action.
No one on the left should gloss over some of the trade unionism extremism of the 1970s. But we’re a long way away from that era now, and the pendulum has swung much too far the other way. Trade unionism today is almost a dirty word, with politicians of all stripes practiced in a sort of collective amnesia whereby decent pay and conditions for working people simply fell out of the sky or came as a result of kind-hearted rich men.
It is a fantasy, and those who decry today’s strike action as ‘politically motivated’ know very well what the real political motivation is in all the talk about ballot thresholds: to take yet more leverage away from working people.
James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow James Bloodworth on Twitter
125 Responses to “Strong unions won you your rights, not kind-hearted rich men”
crizz1066
My friends were no rich, like me my mate has no qualifications. Yet he made it work with his wife through hard work. As I say they did it any can it’s not easy as you have to give up some things but you can still live. Again if you look at the save the children estimates, which I just have done. Parents on drugs is mentioned. Perhaps you should read it, then you won’t look such a fool.
crizz1066
I didn’t denied it, I said there are very few. If you can afford a big TV with sky, smoke cigarette you ain’t poor. I’m fully aware what the average family get on benefits as I have friends in that situation. That does not make you poor. You wanna see poor try a real 3rd world country. I’m guessing you’re the same idiot that’s just commented on everything I’ve said. I suggest you go back and reread everything I’ve said. You might understand what I’m saying instead of putting words into my mouth.
crizz1066
OK I’m not going to reply anymore. But I just like to thank
those who’ve tried to disagree with me. Especially Leon Wolfeson
& blar1987 or whatever. Both tried to disagree with my initial statement.
But both neither read nor understood any of my comments. Also then put words
into my mount about things I hadn’t said, ignored historical facts and made baseless
equations. Then when it wasn’t going their way, they hide their name and start
to argue with me again pretending to be a new person. But not being clever
enough to realise their name still comes up. All this has done is validate my initial
statement, which is that Unions are run by a small militant minority, who are
only interested in pushing their own views and opinions. Whether or not these
would benefit its members. The sooner
news rules are brought in the better for everyone.
Leon Wolfeson
You can hire managers quite easily. of course. And you are still replying to me, which means you’re lying – this really does speak to your honesty here.
I’m sure your business of destroying UK jobs is doing just fine.
Kozzzzzy
You sound like a nice person.
I am talking about Unions in the USA Only.
I understand there may be need for unions in other places. I am for unions when they are needed.
They help worker when other asshole workers call them “Fucking scab, moron, piece of shit”.