Frances O’Grady has said the Conservative Party’s attack on trade unions is doomed to fail.
Writing in The Guardian, the TUC’s general secretary says David Cameron’s union-bashing enquiry will do nothing to reverse the Tories’ slide in the polls.
Citing a survey saying 78% of Britons support the statement: ‘Trade unions are essential to protect workers’ interests’, she said: “The only comfort to take from this new attack is that crude union bashing will not work.”
At the weekend, the Conservatives launched a six-month review into whether the law needs to be tightened to prevent intimidation and harassment after Unite members carrying a large inflatable rat visited the homes of Grangemouth refinery bosses.
On Sunday a Unite spokesperson said: “This review is a sorry attempt by the Coalition to divert attention from the cost of living crisis. Vince Cable may not have noticed but the Grangemouth dispute has been settled. This review is nothing more than a Tory election stunt which no trade unionist will collaborate with.”
And now Frances O’Grady has hit back, writing: “There has been a huge switch in the balance of workplace power since Margaret Thatcher’s day. This inquiry will not tackle the cartel of companies that blacklisted trade unionists and denied them a livelihood for years simply for raising health and safety issues..
“Nor is the inquiry likely to support the IMF call for an extension of collective bargaining to help reduce the inequalities that helped drive the crash. While workers on average are losing £30 a week in real wage cuts, the share of the national pie that is going to profits is growing.
“The fact that so many Conservatives think that attacking what is Britain’s largest voluntary movement will do them good is just further evidence of how little they understand the lives of ordinary voters.”
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