US and UK trade union leaders: what we’d like the President and the Prime Minister to discuss

Ahead of British Prime Minister May’s meeting with President Trump on 27 January 2017, the top trade union leaders in the US (AFLCIO President Richard Trumka) and UK (TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady) issued this statement.

“American and British working people have a great deal in common. As well as a shared history, we face the same challenge: how to create and sustain secure jobs and good wages for all.

“Unions on both sides of the Atlantic are united in rejecting measures which would benefit the 1% at the expense of the rest of us, and we want an end to divisive political rhetoric that attempts to pit working families against each other on the basis of race, nationality or immigration status. 

“We would welcome a realistic trade agreement between the US and the UK after Brexit, but it needs to benefit British and American workers, not multinational corporations or foreign investors. And it needs to foster globally-recognised worker protections – rights American workers want and British workers don’t want to lose.

“We want our governments to work together to promote decent jobs, high skills and good wages. That must mean industrial strategies and investment aimed at creating more and better jobs, giving working people a voice at work, and boosting wages that have stagnated or fallen for too long. What’s good for British and American workers is good for the US and the UK. “

Friday, 27 January 2017