This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
TRADE unions should ditch their support for the EU if David Cameron’s renegotiation results in fewer rights for workers, labour movement leaders said yesterday.
GMB leader Paul Kenny, who will present a motion to TUC Congress on Tuesday urging a more sceptical line on Europe, said Mr Cameron was “hawking the rights of British workers up for sale.”
If the Tory PM secured exemptions from the working time directive, the agency workers’ directive, holiday pay rules and health and safety regulations, union support must end, he said.
Mr Kenny added that “a lot who’ve been reluctant enthusiasts” for EU membership within his organisation would reverse their position if Mr Cameron came back “with a package that gives a worse deal to GMB members.”
He welcomed new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s ambivalence on Europe, saying that Mr Corbyn’s opponents had been “mistaken” in “unilaterally declaring that whatever the outcome Britain should stay” in the EU.
Domingos Dias, a worker at a Marks and Spencer warehouse in Swindon where bosses have exploited agency workers using the Swedish Derogation exemption to the agency workers’ directive, told Congress that his team could sometimes earn as little as £45 a week.
The seven-hour contracts used by the 24/7 agency at the site have resulted in workers not knowing whether there was sufficient work for them until they reached the site gates.
“How will I pay my mortgage, my electricity bills, my water bills?” Mr Dias asked.
“This is done by M&S, when they say they’re very ethical.”
Teesside construction workers protesting against the exploitation of migrant Labour on the Wilton 11 incinerator project warned of Europe’s role in promoting the use of foreign workforces to undercut negotiated rates of pay.
Unison leader Dave Prentis said that his union could also take a sceptical line.
“How could we (ask Unison members) to support a Yes vote if we’d be voting for worsening workers’ rights?” he questioned.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka confirmed that his union would oppose both the GMB motion and another pushing for unequivocal support for a In vote.
