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The general election is a chance to win change
After 14 years of the Tories, there’s a real prize for working people to be won. And trade unions are a vital part of the picture in rebuilding Britain’s future, says TUC leader PAUL NOWAK
Sir Keir Starmer holds a Labour pledge card while speaking at the launch of Labour's six steps for change in Wales at the Priory Centre in Abergavenny, while on the General Election campaign trail, May 30, 2024
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LAST week the PM finally set the date for the general election — drowned out by music and the rain.
My message couldn’t be clearer. It is time to vote out this morally bankrupt government and vote for political change.
Just look at the state of the country under the Tories.
We have public services starved of funding. We have sewage on our beaches and in our rivers. We have railways run for the benefit of shareholders not passengers.
And we have wage packets still lower than they were in 2008.
The list goes on and on.
One in seven are skipping meals because they cannot make ends meet with four in 10 black and minority ethnic households living in poverty.
Britain today is a land of public squalor and private affluence. A country of haves and have-nots. The Tories have put their miserable stamp on every region and nation of the UK.
Now, we can’t and shouldn’t take anything for granted.
Labour may be way ahead in the polls. Yet it still needs a historic swing to win a majority of just one.
But the prize is very real.
A new publicly owned energy company, Great British Energy, run in our interests. Our railways back where they belong in public ownership. The largest wave of public-sector insourcing in decades. And above all, a Labour government that will deliver a New Deal for Working People — the biggest expansion of workers’ rights and trade union rights in a generation.
A New Deal that will give day one protections for millions and help make work pay.
But unions will not rest there. We want a broader package of change.
We want an economy that rewards work rather than wealth. An economy where we use a smart industrial strategy to deliver good green jobs and rise to the challenge of AI. An economy where we invest in the schools, hospitals, local councils and public services we all depend on. An economy where we have fair taxes — where the wealthy pay their share.
After 14 long years we have only five weeks left to organise, get the vote out and to fight for jobs, wages, rights and services.
It says everything about the values of that Cabinet that they’ve spent the last year battling unions — rather than the cost-of-living crisis.
They have reintroduced tribunal fees that the Supreme Court ruled were unlawful. They have brought back the toxic policy of allowing employers to use agency workers to bust strikes. And they have cynically imposed minimum service levels that will remove the right to strike from one in five workers.
We have to get a new government elected and win the New Deal. But whatever happens at the election we must work to build stronger trade unions so that we have a movement that is growing, thriving and that can win for workers.
These have been — are — tough times for working people. But they are also hopeful times because change is within our grasp.
Not just the prospect of political change — but the possibility of economic and social change too.
The chance to build a fairer, greener, more equal country where workers get decent pay and a secure job. And where everyone has access to great public services.
So, let’s take that opportunity, build our movement and win for workers.
Paul Nowak is general secretary of the Trades Union Congress.
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