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Trade unions will be mere 'memory of a movement' unless they win back collective bargaining

RMT leader Eddie Dempsey's stark warning shook up a fringe meeting at the Scottish TUC

Eddie Dempsey joins the picket line outside Paddington Station, London, August 26, 2023

TRADE unions will be an irrelevance within 20 years — “a memory of a movement” — unless they confront the inadequacies in the Employment Rights Bill and secure sectoral collective bargaining and the right to take solidarity strike action, RMT leader Eddie Dempsey warned on Monday night.

The Institute of Employment Rights-Trade Union Co-ordinating Group fringe meeting heard that the Bill leaves serious restrictions on trade union activity and does not deliver the changes hoped for.

“My litmus test is very simple. We could have another P&O” (when the ferry company sacked 800 workers by video link and replaced them with cheaper labour) “under this piece of legislation and it would do nothing to stop it,” Dempsey said.

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