Following weeks of wrangling over revised wording contained in Labour’s New Deal For Workers document and pressure from employers and the CBI Sir Keir Starmer and TULO unions (unions affiliated to the Labour Party) have agreed the following statement:
“Together we have reiterated Labour’s full commitment to the ‘New deal for working people’ as agreed in July. We will continue to work together at pace on how a Labour government would implement it in legislation.”
It means the deal agreed at the National Policy Forum in July last year which some unions argue already represented a “watering down” of several of the original proposals, is now the party’s agreed position.
Unions say that there were concerns about the draft Labour document extended beyond the NPF deal.
Some senior Labour figures had also expressed concern about the leaking of an internal draft to the media in an attempt to bounce the unions into further changes.
Union General Secretaries met for 2 hours in advance of the meeting with Starmer, deputy leader, Angela Rayner, shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, party chair, Anneliese Dodds, and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones. The meeting with Labour lasted 3 hours.
TULO unions had raised concerns about the leaked draft of a document that included several changes to the proposals, including the speed and methods of the changes.
TULO unions presented a united front with Labour and Starmer was told he should agree to return to language used in NPF document with no further ‘watering down”.
According to the Guardian a union source said: “We believed that the party had agreed all of these measures with us at the national policy forum last summer,” one union source said. “We are trade unionists and we know when we make an agreement – we don’t expect to be then given a different draft months later and be told, actually this is what’s going to happen.”
Another union official said: “There are those who want to make their case publicly, but the concerns are shared privately by most unions. It’s not only about consultations, which is how the Labour party have tried to frame this; there are promises that were made, such as on sick pay, which have gone completely.”
Dave Ward General Secretary of the CWU said: the meeting was a “positive” and “good” one.
“We have reached an agreement in terms of the full new deal, will be implemented as we agreed previously. Keir’s made it very clear how transformational that will be for working people. “We’ve got the position we all want, Labour, working people, this will be the biggest difference in rights the country has ever seen in decades, it will be a flagship policy for the general election. The full new deal will be implemented… we’ve got the position we all want… we need to shift the balance of forces in the world of work, back towards working people”
“We need to shift the balance of forces in the world of work, back towards working people, that’s the only way you’re going to grow the economy.”
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham one of the fiercest critics of the Labour Party revised document said: “The workers’ voice was heard today. My Job is to defend workers. Labour have listened. The words on the page will now matter. We have to hold their feet to the fire… we’re not a cult.”
Matt Wrack the General Secretary of the Firefighters union the FBU and this years president of the TUC and a strong critic of the revised draft trailed in the media in recent weeks said: “There’s going to be a debate about policies are implemented… there’s always people with different views… the question now is how that is implemented.”