What would the unions in Northern Ireland ask of the incoming UK Government?
At last, we are within the sight of the finishing line. This awful Tory government ought to be dispatched to the history books if the polls are correct and morality has any meaning. This warning for future historians in maladministration and magical thinking has a legacy of almost perfectly malevolent policies only mitigated by their incompetence.
The only saving grace possessed by the Tories was their inability to make things as bad as they wanted for the people they professed to serve but to whom they showed little regard or respect.
Hopefully, the Westminster government will now be run by people who are both conscientious and capable. There are things the incoming government can do to make life better for everyone. In our devolved administration, where thankfully many powers were devolved to Stormont under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, shelter was afforded from the nasty policies imposed on the rest of the UK in recent years, such as the Bedroom Tax and spiteful anti-trade union laws.
However, the Stormont institutions have been suspended for over 40 per cent of the time since 1998, and important changes to the law have been made by Westminster with little or no input from our elected MLAs.
Most important is the fact of money. Our budgets have been squeezed since before the 2010 election brought the Tories into power, but the intense austerity imposed by Cameron and Osborne in their first term and the chaos and long-term self-sabotage of Brexit have left the recently revived NI Executive with a legacy of damage it will take years to repair.
Recently, the elected ruling body for the trade union movement in NI discussed and agreed that certain policy areas need to be highlighted to assist with the serious public conversation we deserve during this election period.
These policy areas are all matters which we have long advocated, based on motions passed at our delegate conferences over the years, and from across the democratic structures of NIC-ICTU.
Completing B/GFA & honouring commitment to Bill of Rights
The trade union movement has been unwavering in its call for the full implementation of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement since its endorsement in the 1998 referendum, including the Bill of Rights.
Rather than attacking human rights by threatening to withdraw the Human Rights Act and leave the ECHR, we call on the UK Government to fulfil its obligation under the B/GFA by taking a Bill of Rights to completion via Westminster legislation. Civil society, political parties and the public have all had their say. There is resounding support for advancing our own set of rights protections and the UK Government can no longer support a political veto on human rights in Northern Ireland.
Scrapping the Legacy Act and return to principles of Stormont House agreement
We agree with victims organisations such as WAVE, who agrees that these proposals clearly conflict with the duty on the UK under the European Convention on Human Rights to effectively investigate unlawful death and torture, and that these proposals will undermine the Human Rights Act and the rule of law.
Promoting tax justice and fairness to fund proper public services
In any modern state with locally elected mayors and accountable assemblies, there is significant room for manoeuvre for various kinds of local taxes to raise or lower – income, property, carbon, consumption, tourism, etc. As the NI Fiscal Commission found, what options there are will make very little difference.
The bigger picture is that we focus on the wrong taxes and we do not take enough of the right taxes.
ICTU‘s 2020 No Going Back report highlighted that fact that in the UK, one of the largest gaps in tax was in social insurance contribution and in particular those levied on employers. This gap remains significant and it is estimated that if employer social insurance contributions were to rise to meet the average of our European peers, it would raise an extra £90 billion in the UK. For Northern Ireland, this would result in an extra £2.6 billion in revenue generated annually.
Action on climate change and a Just Transition to Net Zero
Workers need to be empowered in the process of change that is needed to transition to a sustainable, post-carbon economy. There are huge opportunities – in terms of jobs and skills from such a transition – but there are also huge risks and threats.
Workers cannot be side-lined from shaping the economic transition, instead they must play a central and deciding role. It is vital that the trade union movement, in particular those representing the trade unions representing workers in industries which will face the greatest change, is centrally involved in securing a truly Just Transition.
Improved relations with EU
We back the Windsor Framework as something which can mitigate the worst effects of Brexit on trade and jobs. We need a government who is willing to talk seriously about improving relations with whom we share a land border, hopefully negotiating deals on (say) phytosanitary standards that will make much of the Irish Sea border irrelevant.
Change hostile environment towards asylum seekers
Europe is not doing enough to offer refugees safety and the response of the UK has been shameful. Too often, refugees are left to the mercy of unseaworthy boats or the back of refrigerated lorries.
People fleeing war need safe and legal routes to reach asylum, and our ageing population can benefit from their skills and humanity, as the ‘native’ labour force declines. It is possible to be both humane to others and self-interested for our futures and the health of our economy, not to mention the social and cultural benefits of a more pluralist society.
Recognition of the State of Palestine
Congress welcomed the historic recognition of the State of Palestine by Ireland as “a very welcome development, as it clearly affirms the right of Palestinians to self-determination in a sovereign Palestinian state”. Congress also supports stronger action by the international community to hold Israel’s extremist government to account for its reprehensible actions over many decades, while also opposing the violence of Hamas. However, if the UK Government joins the dozens of states around the world who recognise the state of Palestine as a diplomatic reality with a place of the global stage, that would be a dramatic improvement of the rhetoric and support from recent UK governments for the criminal actions of the Netanyahu government.
Commit to better workers’ rights in NI and across GB
Over the last few years, the trade union movement in NI have been able to win a better deal on key employment rights compared to changes implemented in Britain by the Conservative/Coalition Governments.
Workers here now have employment rights that are significantly better than the rights enjoyed by our trade union brothers and sisters in the rest of the UK.
We want a new Westminster government to scrap the Tory anti-trade union legislation and create a new framework for workers and their unions in England, Wales and Scotland.
With the return of the NI Executive and Assembly the potential exists for us to lobby and get improvements to employment rights in Northern Ireland. We are determined to see a transformed environment for working people, with collective bargaining at the centre of industrial relations.
The whole of society benefits from people at work having access to a union, and unions having access to workers. The international evidence is clear, and there is widespread acceptance that when workers have a strong voice in workplaces, that collective voice works for not only for the individual benefit of each worker with better pay and conditions but also for a wider, fairer, and more productive economy. New legislation is key to building this new economy. The ICTU is determined to work with Government and employers towards this common purpose.
