DISABLED campaigners vowed to stand up to European Union-United States trade pact TTIP yesterday and called for international co-operation between workers, not bosses.

A motion on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) led to passionate speeches by disabled Unite activists at the union’s annual equalities conferences.

The call to resist the deal came less than an hour after Marsha Zkowski from US union United Steelworkers delivered a touching talk on struggle across the Atlantic.

And, addressing disabled members, Unite committee member Pete Gillard said: “I’m fully in favour of solidarity between trade unions in the US and in Britain.

“I’m less supportive of the bosses to basically screw us in terms of increasing their profits.”

Campaigners argued that they had been bearing the brunt of austerity, with service closures and cuts to funding resulting in the deaths of several disabled people.

Unite already has a policy of campaigning against TTIP, but disabled activists believed there was a need to oppose the coalition-backed trade deal as part of their struggle against service closures, cuts to funding and further privatisation.

Seconding the motion, East Midlands delegate Mike Thompson said: “Sovereign power is being taken away from governments that are being elected and given to corporations.

“These treaties allow multinational companies to operate like pirates, hold governments hostage and actually decide what policies governments can follow and what ideas the ordinary people like us can talk about.”

The motion was passed unanimously.