Address to Congress 2005 by Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary

Address to Congress 2005 by Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary

12 Sep 2005

President, Congress, It's been quite a year.

The Tories in turmoil, the General Council Cricket Team beating the journalists and Everton in Europe (at least for a couple of more weeks). That is not a combination you see that often - but long may it continue.

It's also been a year that has made me more proud than ever to be a trade unionist. Sometimes that has been in my day to day work, meeting workers, meeting activists. And sometimes that has been at the big national moments.

Just two months ago I spoke from a platform in Trafalgar Square - not that unusual perhaps for the TUC General Secretary. But that occasion was different.

That was when we said thank you to the capital's emergency and transport workers who responded with such quiet magnificence when their city was attacked.

Tomorrow we will have a proper opportunity to say what a credit they are to the trade union movement.

But today, let us salute their commitment to the public service ethos - an ethos so often casually dismissed by the privatisers, the profiteers and the market testers.

Of course, the message that day in Trafalgar Square was not just one of appreciation. It was also one of solidarity and unity. We came together to say that we would not be divided. Every passenger, whatever their colour or creed - people of every religion and people of none - came under attack. That's why we said an attack on one was an attack on all.

And why we said no to the racists and no to the politics of hate. In Trafalgar Square, London came together to sign up to what we as trade unionists have always said. Together we are stronger. And let that message go out again today. Together, stronger in fighting race hatred.

Together, stronger in struggling for social justice. Together, stronger in striving for opportunity for all. And it was not just after the bombs that we made our stand. Let us salute the trade unionists - like those in Ron Todd's old stamping ground in Dagenham - who for years have done so much to cut the ground from under the BNP.

Let us salute the activists who day in, day out strive to build links across their communities, sometimes in the face of vile intimidation from Far Right thugs.

And let us salute those who have stood shoulder to shoulder in resisting the politics of hate. That's the message I have taken on your behalf to Muslim Communities in East London, Leeds and Birmingham just in the last two weeks.

Together stronger - two words that sum up everything about our movement.

We know unity is what sustains people through the most difficult of times. It's what gives us the strength to cope with great suffering. It mattered here after July 7^th; and it matters now across the Atlantic.

It goes without saying - those affected by the destructive natural disaster in the United States have our solidarity and our support, and I know the American trade union movement has done everything it can to aid the response. But the catastrophe in New Orleans has in the most terrible way shown the consequences of a society where the individual takes precedence over the collective, where massive private affluence coexists with desperate public squalor, where the market reigns supreme.

The result is gross inequality: between classes, between races, between those who can look after themselves and those who cannot.

But we know there is a better way. In the aftermath of the attacks in London, we took great pride not just in the response of our public services but in the philosophy that sustains them. From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.

Together stronger. That, of course, is the lifeblood of our movement. That's something I've seen time and again over the past year. I saw that when I have visited the state-of-the-art union learning centres all around the country and discovered how our exciting work on skills is transforming people's lives.

At one centre in Watford I met a young mother, out of learning since 16, enjoying new opportunities and a promotion at work - but what gave her most satisfaction of all was her role as a learning rep. Ambitious not just for herself, but for her colleagues too.

I saw that when I visited Leeds Prison, where POA reps delivering a vital service that is so often invisible and undervalued have negotiated new working arrangements that are making a real difference to their members lives and transforming the service they deliver.

Wherever we work, whatever we do, we are all guided by one simple truth. Together stronger.

And never have I felt that more powerfully than when I visited the workers at Gate Gourmet last month. Their solidarity in adversity was a deeply humbling experience. And their experience was a stark reminder about the realities of work in Britain here and now in 2005.

Without question, making work better for all is one of the biggest challenges facing the government. With lots of union help on the ground, Labour secured a historic third term with a clear majority.

That's some achievement. But it's one that has to be qualified. Other than the 1983 disaster, you have to go back to 1935 to find an election when fewer people voted Labour. Nearly 60 Labour MPs now have majorities under 3,000. If Labour is to win again, it must put its 1997 vote back together again.

Yes, keeping and winning new voters, but also winning back those who have too often felt taken for granted. In the second term we had important achievements yes, but a foreign policy that deeply divided the country.

Huge investment in public services, but tempered often by a preference for private sector solutions. We won important new rights at work, but heard too much sniping at social Europe.

This time, we need a new start -- a fresh sense of purpose. At its heart, a clear vision for the workplace. We can build on the genuine advances that have been made over the past eight years, from the minimum wage to near full employment to the massive expansion of childcare we've just been discussing. Sometimes perhaps we don't give the government enough credit for what they've done.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't work for more, because so much more is needed. There is a comfortable Britain - people in decent jobs with a secure pension. And then there is the other Britain. The Britain where one in five workers earns £280 a week or less. The Britain where work is a struggle and exploitation is rife.

We've heard quite a bit about offshoring in recent months, but let us be clear. Far more people have been hit by outsourcing. There are few companies who have not practised it. Companies that we would recognise as responsible employers, and with whom we could easily do business.

But look at who cleans their offices or works in their canteen. They've outsourced the low paid jobs. And they have struck a hard bargain that too often leads to poverty pay, no pension and minimum holidays. Their directors can sign off an annual report that says they are good employers, but two hours later their boardroom is cleaned by people on nothing like a living wage.

To those bosses who turn a blind eye to this reality I say simply: You may be able to outsource your business, but you can't outsource your conscience, or your reputation. And to Digby Jones, this is not about competition from China and India.

You can't send your building to Beijing to have it cleaned, or order a take out from Mumbai.

And outsourcing is not just about the private sector. That is why we stand solidly behind the House of Commons cleaners who are demanding a living wage.

Expected to keep the Mother of all Parliaments functioning - yet expected to get by on little more than £5 an hour in Europe's most expensive city.

So what does the government need to do? I want them to really work with us to eradicate these crude injustices. They should deliver proper protection for agency workers, and get the proposed European Directive back on track. They should deliver sensible safeguards on working time. To begin a real crack down on burned out Britain.

They should bring employment law in to line with ILO standards. And they should face up to the urgent need for action to reverse the catastrophic slide in our manufacturing capacity. So my challenge to the Labour government, our Labour government, is simple.

Work with us to make work better. Never forget: together stronger.

And to be frank this represents a major challenge for us too. It is not an exaggeration to say this is a critical time for our movement. I know how much effort unions have put into recruitment and organisation in the last year, and we have seen some increase in TUC membership. That's a real tribute to the innovation and energy of countless trade unionists around our country.

But we are still probably losing as many members as we gain, and with growth in public services slowing in the years ahead, that challenge becomes more acute each year. There's a critical sense of urgency about the organising challenge. More of what we are doing already is much of the answer. But it's not enough.

We should do more - much more - to face outwards. And we need to think hard about our structures and how best to make use of our resources. Some people tell me I ought to be worried about the prospect of three of our biggest unions merging.

Actually I'm not. I've always wanted to see a more rational union structure and less inter-union competition. The merger could deliver real benefits, and if that is what the members decide, then I wish it well and would want it to be a success for the whole trade union movement. But I never forget that mergers, in themselves, don't make a single extra member. In 2001, Verdi was formed as Germany's largest union with around 3 million members. Now 4 years later their membership numbers have fallen to around 2.5 million.

In merger discussions it can be too easy to get bogged down in the inevitable complexities of constitutions, rules and internal structures, with a risk that the eye gets taken off that crucial growth agenda.

Whatever changes come along in our trade union structures, this TUC - your TUC - must deliver a united trade union voice on all the issues that matter most to working people. And we do that by recognising, indeed celebrating, the diversity that we represent - big unions and small, public sector and private too, niche unions that have unparalled expertise and insights in the issues facing sometimes crucial parts of our economy, alongside general unions that bring members together from right across the workplaces of Britain, unions that affiliate to the Labour Party alongside others that have chosen a sturdy political independence.

For generations our movement has spoken with one voice, that's what has sustained us through good times and bad. Together stronger

At every twist and every turn, let us remember why we are trade unionists. We are trade unionists because we believe the strong have an obligation to help the weak.

We are trade unionists because we do not rest until wrongs are righted. And we are trade unionists because we know we achieve more together than we ever can alone.

Together stronger - for justice, fairness and opportunity.

Together stronger - in workplaces and communities across the land.

Together stronger, yesterday, today, and most importantly tomorrow too.