{"id":4308,"date":"2015-05-29T12:41:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T11:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4308"},"modified":"2015-06-01T14:00:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-01T13:00:23","slug":"eu-why-labour-has-to-say-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4308","title":{"rendered":"EU: why Labour has to say yes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With a majority Conservative government that is slim and therefore vulnerable, and a government programme that a Guardian<\/em> editorial<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0this week described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098rag bag\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, members in both Houses will be slaving away under the cosh of the chief whips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among the incoherent set of policies laid out in the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Speech, the referendum on an in\/out membership of the European Union will dominate the conversation. Under pressure from his backbenchers and UKIP, Cameron caved in. He is relying on his \u00e2\u20ac\u0098skills\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as a negotiator to come up with enough EU reforms that he can put to the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But no matter how many \u00e2\u20ac\u0098reforms\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the prime minister may be able to secure\u00c2\u00a0traipsing around European capitals,\u00c2\u00a0they will never be enough for his many right-wing Eurosceptic MPs. For them, only full BREXIT will do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With the stakes of this referendum so high, we can expect a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098battle royal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in both houses. Europe\u00c2\u00a0was the fault line of the 1992 Conservative government, with the party riven apart over the Maastricht Treaty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Come out fighting<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Labour has to come out fighting for a Yes vote to stay in Europe. Whilst arguing for 16 and 17-year-old votes is important, Labour has to lay out for the British people why a No vote would be a disaster for jobs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially in manufacturing\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0and for\u00c2\u00a0employment rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite\u00c2\u00a0the shenanigans on the Tory benches, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0general secretary Len McCluskey has said that\u00c2\u00a0Unite\u00c2\u00a0will play its part in a genuine debate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Defending jobs and\u00c2\u00a0Europe-wide\u00c2\u00a0employment rights has to be uppermost in the discussions to come, and Labour has a big role to play.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As a delegate to the TUC Congress in the early 1980s, I well remember the late Ron Todd,\u00c2\u00a0former TGWU general secretary, telling us that\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0098membership of the then EEC was the only\u00c2\u00a0 game in town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was the European Commissioner Jacques Delors in the mid 1980s and his social chapter that persuaded many on the left who had regarded the EEC as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bosses club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to embrace membership. Ron had been impressed with Delors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contention that completion of the Single European Market would be an opportunity to give it a social dimension.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Delors rapidly became a target for the Sun,<\/em> who produced the\u00c2\u00a0infamous front page ‘Up Yours Delors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. But Delors went on to preserve the European model of society with its emphasis on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098close co-operation and solidarity as well as competition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many of the workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights we have today have their roots in that time.\u00c2\u00a0Now we need to bring that same level of commitment to\u00c2\u00a0the run up to the referendum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Laws<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

EU membership has also given us the laws and legislation that have helped bring investment and decent jobs in manufacturing to the UK. Three and a half million jobs<\/a> in the UK \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than\u00c2\u00a010 per cent in every region \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and an estimated \u00c2\u014130bn of our economy\u00c2\u00a0<\/a> are a direct result of our membership of the EU. Two-thirds<\/a> of manufacturing jobs in the UK are sustained by trade with the rest of the EU.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The economics make membership crucial, but so too does the protection that it gives workers. We have EU membership to thank for parental leave being extended to at least four months for each parent no matter what type of contract a worker may be on, and for laws which say\u00c2\u00a0part time workers can no longer be treated less favourably than their\u00c2\u00a0full time counterparts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The list of rights goes\u00c2\u00a0on; the working time directive that protects workers from being forced to work more than 48 hours on average, with breaks during and between shifts; guaranteed\u00c2\u00a0paid annual leave of at least four weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, major manufacturing companies have come out against a UK exit. Recently Airbus UK said<\/a> that the company is based on a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098model of European integration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and promised to be more vocal in their support for stability and continued membership. Airbus said they believed an EU exit would mean\u00c2\u00a0significant changes to the regulatory and economic environment in which they\u00c2\u00a0operate, which may well impact on their competitiveness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of our leading engineering bodies has also pointed out that EU citizens currently working here as skilled engineers and scientists \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who are adding to the success of the UK economy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would\u00c2\u00a0become foreigners in the event of an exit, possibly without the right to stay. And this is a two way street. We have many of our nationals (including Unite members) working in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and beyond. Will there be repercussions?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assistant general secretary responsible for manufacturing, I am committed to our continuing membership of the EU. No matter how disappointed I still am that Labour lost the election, our union will fight hard for a Yes vote to defend jobs and to defend employment rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* This article first appeared in Left Foot Forward, May 28\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a majority Conservative government that is slim and therefore vulnerable, and a government programme that a Guardian editorial\u00c2\u00a0this week described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098rag bag\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, members in both Houses will be slaving away under the cosh of the chief whips.   Among the incoherent set of policies laid out in the Queen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Speech, the referendum on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[310,299,55],"wps_subtitle":"Priority must be employment rights","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4313,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4308\/revisions\/4313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}