A vote to remain in the EU must be seen as a vote for a return to its original mission of solidarity and hope. It must not be taken as a thumbs up for the finance-first status quo which has brought…Read more…
Brexit won’t raise wages: why Sir Stuart Rose is wrong
We got an object lesson yesterday in why workers and their representatives need to play a more prominent role in the EU referendum campaign. Sir Stuart Rose – former boss at non-union Marks & Spencer, and now chair of Britain Stronger in Europe – appeared to suggest that leaving the…Read more…
#EUreferendum: Brexit risks our employment rights
Whilst media attention focuses on the impact the EU referendum seems to be having on relations between members of the Conservative Party, there are more serious concerns about the impact the result could have on rights for working people. The reality i…Read more…
EU referendum campaign begins: let’s put workers first
This morning an edited version of this piece was in the Sunday Mirror, with the alternative point of view put by Michael Gove MP. His remark that “membership of the EU prevents us being able to…Read more…
Brexit: who benefits?
David Cameron has been touring European cities negotiating for a so called reformed European Union and doesn’t it make you feel ashamed? The number one on his negotiating agenda is an…Read more…
A radical new beginning
A new year always brings with it a sense of optimism and renewed hope and I’m determined 2016 should be no different. Yes, 2015 landed us with five years of Tory rule as David Cameron won a…Read more…
#VotesAt16: Giving young people a greater say on their future
Today the House of Commons will be placed in the ironic position of being asked by the Government to reject a democratic reform proposed by the unelected House of Lords. And the TUC is backing the…Read more…
UK proposals for EU renegotiation: Joint DGB-TUC statement
Reiner Hoffman, the President of the TUC’s German equivalent, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), has signed the following statement with me. It sets out our response to the Prime…Read more…
Cameron’s EU renegotiation strategy: a virus infecting the European social model
On Friday I spoke at an event in Dublin organised by the Charter Group – Irish trade unionists supporting the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – about the United Kingdom’s EU referendum. This is an edited version of the speech I gave. Ever since Jacques Delors came to our Congress…Read more…
European unions back TUC call on EU referendum
Last week in Paris, the four-yearly Comgress of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) adopted unanimously an emergency resolution from the TUC about the British government’s EU…Read more…
EU court’s common sense decision on time spent travelling to work
The European Court ruling this week was indeed a good decision for people working long hours, a phenomenon that TUC research shows is on the rise again in Britain. But many of those commuters happily seeing the headlines saying “EU court rules travelling to work ‘is work’” could…Read more…
Cameron’s EU workplace rights strategy pleasing no one
The Financial Times reported last night that David Cameron had dropped plans to demand widespread exemptions from European Union workplace rights. The TUC has been warning that those demands were on his agenda for months (often pooh-poohed by ‘experts’), and we have been arguing that…Read more…
Of course I’ll defend the rights Europe has delivered. But we want better, not just more of the same!
David Cameron is touring national capitals around Europe garnering support for his pre-referendum EU renegotiation strategy. And because his strategy seems to be bad news for British workers, he sometimes finds we’ve been there first. Today, for example, I’ll be travelling to Luxembourg…Read more…
Cameron playing with fire on workers’ rights
The TUC has been criticised for crying wolf over the Prime Minister’s plans to use the EU renegotiation phase of the referendum strategy to attack workers’ rights. But today’s media stories suggest we are spot on the money on both working time and temporary agency workers. The…Read more…
Common priorities for Europe in Britain & Ireland
Yesterday I had the honour of addressing the Congress of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), and a large part of my speech focused on the challenges facing the European Union. Including, of…Read more…
Cameron’s EU renegotiation strategy matters to everyone in Europe
Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem about Nazi persecution begins (in its most quoted version): “first they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist”. It eventually ends up “Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up…Read more…
Tolpuddle in Tuscany: talking Brexit & Grexit
Last night I was sat in a tent for a couple of hours on top of a hill in Tuscany, alongside the current and future Presidents of the European Trade Union Confederation (Ignacio Toxo from…Read more…
Why we’d find it difficult repeating Better Together for Europe
We’re being asked quite a lot if the trade union movement would join a broad-based campaign to stay in the European Union, working with employers, political parties and others. The example of…Read more…
#EUReferendum: Business for Britain’s longest blackmail letter in history
The eurosceptic Business for Britain campaign – not to be confused with the pro-European Business for New Europe campaign – this week issued what you might call ‘the longest blackmail letter’ in history to Prime Minister David Cameron. But they have done us a great service…Read more…