President's Address to TUC Congress 2014
Speech by Trades Union Congress President Mohammad Taj, Sunday 7 Sep 2014.
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Watch Mohammad Taj deliver his speech
Sisters and Brothers,
This is our last Congress before the general election. An election that I believe – and probably you do as well – will be the most important election since 1945.
Make no mistake, it is going to be the fight of our lives. A fight we can and must win.
Sisters and brothers, we know that the Tories are gearing up to finish the job that Thatcher started in the eighties.
She sold off our utilities and this lot are hell-bent on selling off the rest.
They claim there isn't any money, but the reality is they are redistributing our wealth to their friends, to their cronies, and to their funders. It's a bit ironic ... they must be having a laugh. We were supposed to be doing the redistribution. I think they might have stolen our Clause Four!
The Tories have always been good at taking care of their own.
But first, before I go on, please let me thank Len and Unite who have provided massive support. My thanks to Frances, who is an inspiration and a tower of strength. Thanks also to the TUC staff and also my employer – First Bradford – who continue to pay my bus driver's salary. To tell you the truth, I still don't know if it was because they were proud to have one of their drivers in such a prestigious role, or they were just glad to see the back of me for 12 months.
And last – but definitely not least – thanks to my wife Naseem, she is here today. Back in the seventies, it was common practice on the Asian sub-continent to have arranged marriages. We were a bit hippy, we both had long hair. She still does ... I don't.
That wasn’t our only rebellion. We both rebelled against arranged marriages and chose each other. After 41 years, she knows we are still madly in love with each other. I want to thank her publicly for her help and encouragement. I know I would have not got to where I am today without her support. Naseem – thank you.
Congress, the issue that is likely to dominate our political debate must be the terrible attempt by this coalition government to dismantle our public services. They are covering up the race to the bottom by cooking the books.
They are trying to convince us that there is growth. But the only growth I see are the number of food banks!
They tell us that there is less unemployment, but we know that jobs worth having are being replaced by zero-hours and phony self-employment.
We are almost back to the times when dock workers were given a brass tally that meant they would have work that day. As Len points out, the bosses would cynically throw theses tallies into the air and watch while workers would scrabble to pick them up. Not having a tally would mean that their families would go hungry.
And now, in the twenty-first century, workers have to wait anxiously for a text to tell them if they are hired – or not required. It might not be the dock gate, but the effects are still as humiliating. They may be called employees, but they won’t have a written statement of terms and conditions and they won’t have protection against unfair dismissal.
Congress, it's a disgrace.
We should not dignify zero hours with the term ‘contract’ since the bosses have no obligations and the workers have no rights.
To add salt to the wound of job insecurity, an important lifeline provided by an employment tribunal has been cut off from employees.
When this government looks at employment tribunals or health and safety legislation, they don't see protection, they see red tape to be abolished or made too expensive for workers to afford. In the battle to counter job insecurity and ever growing inequality, we need strong trade unions and trade union freedoms.
None of us are surprised that this bankrupt government is continuing its attacks on trade unions. Their latest demand being that unions have to cross a 50 per cent plus threshold before strike action. Yet they are happy enough to take their seats in Parliament with less than 24 per cent. Hypocrisy ... pure hypocrisy!
I could go on and talk about the demonization of immigrants or the hated bedroom tax that destroys lives.
And public services that are struggling as the cuts continue to bite.
Living standards are falling, prices are rising, and wages are stagnating – that's the hard truth of this so-called economic recovery.
When the unemployment figures were released, Iain Duncan Smith boasted that the Tories’ long-term economic plan was working. I have only one question: who is it working for? Because it’s not us, we are not feeling it.
No, the real story of those unemployment figures is the calamity of falling wages. Their economic recovery doesn’t benefit the many, it benefits only a rich minority.
We have a critical role to play in shaping the battle for the hearts and minds of the British public.
Next month we are holding our major national demonstration. One demand: Britain needs a pay rise to end low pay.
On wages, on the economy – as with so much else – it is time for a change.
In 1945, the Labour government faced with economic difficulties that we can hardly begin to imagine remained true to its values. In just six years Clem Attlee, the Labour prime minister, created our welfare state, launched our National Health Service and built homes fit for heroes. As if that wasn’t enough, he transferred key national industries into public ownership, including our railways.
Delegates: social security, the NHS, housing, industry and transport. Seven decades on, these issues remain crucial. That’s why I want Labour to be bold. To give workers hope for a better future. And to rekindle the spirit of 1945.
Congress, I hold our movement dear to my heart.
I first got involved in the T&G after I started working for Bradford City Transport in 1974. I became a shop steward, and I’ve spent over a decade on the TUC’s General Council. To be part of that movement has been a huge privilege.
Today I represent 650 bus drivers, engineers, cleaners and clerical staff. Ordinary – extraordinary – men and women whose labour keeps our economy moving. These workers and others like them make trade unionism what it is. A powerful force for social and economic justice.
My father was a labourer. He worked the land and there were times when he was so wretchedly tired he couldn’t even eat.
He told me not to forget my roots. He said being in the union isn’t only about wages and conditions for yourself. It is a noble endeavour!
Congress, he was right. He was damn right. He would have been proud of me.
We have a movement that touches millions of lives. We can all be incredibly proud of what we do!
Thank you – and have a great Congress.