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The duty of care – rebuild Britain without austerity
We should not for one second allow the new talk of economic meltdown and belt-tightening to gain ground – it’s human welfare that should be our priority, says GFTU general secretary DOUG NICHOLLS

Sometimes a shuttle flies out
And gives a poor woman a clout,
There she’ll lie bleeding, 
But no-one is heeding,
Oh how can we carry her out?

Eleven years ago the GFTU decided to visit the Vietnamese trade union movement and forge new ties with a country that meant so much to so many trade unionists in the 1960s and 1970s.

Exchanges followed. Of particular interest to the Vietnamese trade unions at a time of fast expansion and mass construction sites was British health and safety legislation.

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