I was for my sins at the Labour Party conference in 2007 as the London delegate for London UNISON Labour Link. I posted here fairly positively on Brown conference speech at the time. I agree with commentators since that his reference to “British Jobs for British Workers” has been taken completely out of context. While at the time I thought it was unwise since it did leave him open for attack by such issues as the wildcat strikes at the Lindsey oil refinery.
I actually think there are different issues going on with very different solutions.
The strikes at Lindsey and elsewhere are a local reaction to the increased threat of unemployment. Organised workers are using effective tactics to win access to paid work. I don’t think it is inherently driven by any real racist sentiment but this will have to be handled carefully, not least because the local BNP will be sticking their snouts into things and trying to stir.
The real political issue is that for years the EU had been broadly “worker friendly” and a great number of progressive policies have been brought in via Europe. Recently there have been setbacks and EU court rulings that potentially undermine national wage rates and terms and conditions. It is these rulings that need to be challenged by the government urgently.
Naked protectionism would be a disaster – I have close family and friends who work in Spain, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, France and Belgian. 2 million Brits work and live in Europe more than twice as many as EU workers over here.
I don’t personally know if the present disputes are down to exploitative European management who are bringing in cheap undercutting labour or is it due to greedy and/or incompetent British companies who badly mispriced a tender? The issue is clearly a dispute with management not the European workers themselves.
Hat-tip thingy to Ian about the campaign and petition against “social dumping”.
