{"id":4754,"date":"2015-07-10T14:33:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T13:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=4754"},"modified":"2015-07-13T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T10:36:40","slug":"we-are-not-the-enemy-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=4754","title":{"rendered":"We are not the enemy within"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Ministers should stop regarding trade unions as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the enemy within\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when it comes to partnership working to jump-start the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dismal productivity record, Unite said today (July 10).<\/p>\n

 
\nCommenting on today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s government productivity plans, Unite pinpointed chronically low pay as a key factor as to why the UK has the lowest productivity of the G7 leading industrial nations which will not be addressed by the so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098national living wage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 announced in Wednesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget, which it has now been shown will actually cut incomes for the poorest households.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite said that the measures announced today by the government fall far short of the comprehensive industrial strategy needed to drag the UK off the bottom of the G7 productivity table \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a blueprint for boosting productivity that the union, the biggest in manufacturing, has repeatedly called for.<\/p>\n

 
\nBoosting the rate to US levels would increase national income by 31 per cent, while just a 0.1 per cent hike would grow the economy by \u00c2\u014135bn in 2030.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bRaising the productivity of UK manufacturing and commerce is one of the big economic challenges of the next decade,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne way that this can be achieved is if ministers stopped attacking trade unions as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the enemy within\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of regarding the trade unions, which have more than six million members, as a stumbling block for productivity progress, they should see unions as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098partners in productivity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnions are a frontline resource which help drive up skills and motivate workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou only have to look at the globally successful UK industries, such as car manufacturing and aerospace engineering where management and unions have worked closely together to introduce new technology and drive up productivity.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bChronic pay is a drag on productivity; driving down \u00e2\u20ac\u0098real\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 wages does not help employee motivation and only creates a low-wage, low-skill productivity landscape.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHowever, where there are unions in the private sector we raise wages in real terms, which then swiftly translates into greater productivity from the workforce.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIronic<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 
\nMcCluskey went on to say, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is ironic that business secretary Sajid Javid made his \u00e2\u20ac\u0098productivity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 speech to union members today at the Longbridge car plant, so he witnessed for himself that these are the people working so hard to support our economy, and are undeserving of the attacks on their rights and their unions coming from government.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is clear that austerity, a corset of financial pain for millions of people, is not an engine for either increased productivity or economic growth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as can be seen by the chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own missed targets and the news this week that our growth for this year has been revised down.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nToday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 90-page report, part of the chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Fixing the Foundations, identifies proposals for higher education, transport, trade, devolution of power to cities and regions, skills, long-term investment, tax, digital and science, but the union is concerned that the action is more piecemeal than the strategic approach building a high skills, high rewards economy requires.<\/p>\n

 
\nBefore the budget Len McCluskey wrote to the chancellor<\/a> urging him to change gear in order to work with the UK’s unions, as they are already expert in how to boost economically-vital businesses and as such should be regarded as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098partners in productivity\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite is calling for an industrial strategy which embraces:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 investment in infrastructure, equipment, services, skills and innovation<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 better work organisation with worker and trade union input
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 well-paid, decent, secure jobs<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 rebalancing the economy away from an overreliance on financial services
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 reform of the banking system to ensure investment in the real economy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u02d8 corporate governance reform to end the short-termism that inhibits investment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ministers should stop regarding trade unions as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the enemy within\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when it comes to partnership working to jump-start the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dismal productivity record, Unite said today (July 10).   Commenting on today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s government productivity plans, Unite pinpointed chronically low pay as a key factor as to why the UK has the lowest productivity of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[326],"wps_subtitle":"Embracing trade unions key to productivity boost","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754"}],"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=4754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4755,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4754\/revisions\/4755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}