In his May Day message for the Morning Star, RICHARD BURGON says the call for peace, equality and socialism has never been more relevant
The New Deal for Workers – a focus on ‘rights’ but what about power?
Labour’s long-awaited Employment Rights Bill does not do nearly enough to remove the restraints on trade unions or to give them the powers they need to make a significant difference to the lives of the millions of workers, write KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC

THERE is no doubt that the government should be praised for the significant improvement to employment rights set out in the Employment Rights Bill, published on October 10.
However, it must also be said that these proposals, set out in 119 sections over 105 pages and a further 43 pages of Schedules, come nowhere near the transformational proposals which Labour adopted in 2021 and 2022: A New Deal for Working People.
The bitter truth is that what working people (half the total population of Britain — with most of the rest dependent on them) need is not more individual rights, welcome as they may be, but greater power.
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