THE new Labour government must use its first King’s Speech tomorrow to drive forward “oven-ready” legislation with the power to bring about the biggest shift in the balance of power to workers in decades, trade unions have said.
As the finishing touches are made to the speech to be delivered by a bejewelled monarch on a golden throne in the presence of MPs and unelected peers, Britain’s trade unionists will be watching closely for the announcements of plans which Labour pledged could transform labour relations after decades of attacks on workers’ rights.
TUC president and Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to deliver on the New Deal for Workers policy, adopted by the TUC and the Labour Party to boost workers’ rights and wages.
CWU leader DAVE WARD tells Ben Chacko a strategy to unite workers on class lines is needed – and sectoral collective bargaining must be at its heart
Labour must not allow unelected members of the upper house to erode a single provision of the Employment Rights Bill, argues ANDY MCDONALD MP
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR



