Where unions are weak workers get poorer,
where unions are weak the rich get richer.
If you've got a super rich Elite that is intent on becoming richer and
the means by which they become richer is to make the rest of the society poorer.
It's trade unions and their democracy that is the hope of working people.
All of the wealth in our society is created by workers
and it's their labour that creates the super rich
and you've got to ask these people how rich do they need to be?
If you're worth 10 billion do you need to be worth 20 billion?
What we need in this country in all other countries is a distribution of wealth
so that those that do the work and create the wealth
get a fair share of the fruits of their labour.
If you take health workers and educators and people providing public services
most of those people haven't had a pay rise for nearly a decade.
We know that wealth is being transferred to the super rich
in our society and it's the ordinary women and men around this country
often in low paid or modestly paid jobs that are paying the price.
Many workers can't keep up with the cost of living and are facing really
difficult choices and they're turning to their trade unions to defend them.
They're turning to the unions in order to get a square deal off corporate Britain.
And because they've lost the argument
the Tories are now seeking to change the law and they do that a lot.
Whenever they lose an argument they seek to get a bogeyman
which is the trade unions and now they're seeking to repress
the right to strike and nobody voted for this government.
The government is proposing a whole set of anti-union laws which originated
with Kwasi Kwarteng when he was around for a couple of weeks.
And are now being taken up again by the government and what that
actually means when you strip it down is that workers will be conscripted,
forced to go to work against their will.
Now that is something that is really, really a bad development.
It's an oppression of your right to withdraw your labour
which is in international law the right that every worker
in the world should have.
So it is a real form of suppression of Human Rights
and a really dangerous and dark development.
The sort of thing that we had from oppressive regimes
in the Eastern Bloc and before that in fascist Europe
and other totalitarian regimes in the past where workers are not allowed
to express their rights and indeed they're not allowed to campaign
against poverty which is what the trade unions are mainly doing.
And of course coupled with the police Bill and other Law and Order bills
that they're bringing in they're actually suppressing
the right to express yourself at all and protest against
things that you see as incorrect in our society.
It's not easy to strike now the trade unions have to jump through all sorts of Hoops and hurdles and
in the future that will be even more difficult but the importance of the unions being a source
of opposition and being a source of dissent in our society and a source of Freedom cannot
be underestimated so if you take our own history the ability to vote to get universal suffrage was
supported by the trade unions they have in the weekend and time off is a trade Union campaign
sick pay holiday pay premium pay for overtime the right to get annual leave all these issues have
been fought for by trade unions in the UK and of course all around the world where people have got
a more advanced form of living in societies where you don't have free trade Union items all of those
things have been Stripped Away and if trade unions are oppressed the people of this country will be
oppressed fairly quickly after the government is going after the unions because we've got a kind of
consensus politics in this country at the minute where the official opposition labor and liberal
Democrats and others don't really seem to be asserting themselves as a real opposition and the
trade unions are putting up an opposition and the main issue at the minute in the UK is the cost of
living crisis and of course the job of the trade unions is to negotiate good terms and conditions
good pensions good sick pay good holiday pay and fundamentally good wages so that people can afford
to pay their mortgages their rents their food bills their clothing bills and of course their
energy bills which is a fundamental at the moment so the government quite rightly sees the trade
unions as an opposition a focal point for Dissent and instead of dealing with that taking it head on
and maybe winning an argument against this which you know they're entitled to put up their argument
in a free Society or even better making deals with us so that we get compromises and we can settle
some of these disputes they're trying to make us illegal and that's what exactly what repressive
regimes do all around the world we don't want that here we want a free Society where trade unions can
operate in a democratic way there are a lot of strikes happening at the moment and what I think
is coming home to roost is 12 years of austerity starting with the Osborne on Cameron government
going through May and Johnson now sunac and we have that little bit of trust it's been the same
prescription for working-class people wages have been suppressed compared to inflation inflation is
now at record levels and people are really feeling the pinch so that's come into a boiling point so
in some ways the responses of the trade unions are coincidental because everybody's feeling
that pinch caused by inflation but also trade unionists are taking inspiration from each other
and I hope we can coordinate that for the good of all working people so that we can get some deals
that fit the needs of the day for everyone that working in our economy so we're right to leverage
we're right to say to the government you've got to properly fund public services in our hospitals in
our schools and so on but also you've got to pay people properly we're seeing teachers nurses and
other health care workers and professionals are leaving those sectors in droves to go and work in
environments that are easier less stressful and better rewarded so if we want to have a
health service if we want to educate our kids if we want to look after our elders and everybody
else in society we've got to fund our services appropriately and make sure that the people that
are looking after us are well looked after in terms of their pay packet as well in this world
which seems to be running away from us there's a lot of social media activity there's a lot of
online activity but those things don't change the world on their own we need people in their trade
unions we need people in community campaigns could be about your local Nursery or your old people's
home it could be about something bigger like the future of the NHS or your education service or
it could be about something Global such as the few future of our environment trade unionists have got
to make sure that we're involved in all of those campaigns and that means in every part of the UK
in every village every County every town every city but also in every sector which we deal with
the trade unionists have got to be there pushing the professional politicians pushing the people
that have got their hands on the levers of power to act in a way that is fair for everyone so don't
think that you can just put up an emoji and that's going to change the world we need people on the
streets in their campaigns putting those with power under pressure to share that power with
the rest of us one of the oldest slogans that we have in our movement is Unity is strength and that
goes with the opposite of that the division is fatal so let's Stand United together in a trade
union movement in a trade Union family with everybody working to build a better Society
it's difficult for working-class people to get their voices heard to get Trade union leaders
heard to get the expressions of solidarity that we want to hear and channels like this
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