Received from: Unite
Congress recognises the need for unions to focus on collective action and industrial power to best represent and advance the interests of workers. The collective is the real power of the trade union movement.
Congress believes that workers must not be made to pay for the cost-of-living crisis while profits rise. Wages were suppressed in response to the economic crisis in 2008 and they have never recovered. Instead, the ‘recovery’ was marked by record profits and a widening gap between rich and poor.
Workers are now being asked to exercise pay restraint because of inflation. But a Unite Investigates report has exposed how corporate profiteering – not workers’ wages – has been driving inflation. We can’t afford to accept another national pay cut to subsidise profits.
Congress notes that in recent months Unite has led and won over 300 disputes involving some 60,000 members who have been on strike winning over £50m for members across hundreds of employers. This demonstrates the power of coordinated action.
Congress prioritises supporting workers in dispute and organising and mobilising workers through trade unions to give them the industrial power to fight for decent jobs, pay and conditions.
Congress calls on the General Council to:
i. inform and give confidence to workers about the justice of demanding decent pay
ii. facilitate and encourage industrial coordination between unions so that workers in dispute can most effectively harness their union power to win.
Unite