the real anti-union Nu(Neo)Labour plan revealed


10 January, 2003

UK LEADS EUROPEAN ATTACK ON WORKERS' RIGHTS

BASIC workers' rights across Europe have been attacked as
'uncompetitive' by the UK Government.

Former Europe Minister Peter Hain, who remains the Government's chief
negotiator on the Convention on the Future of Europe - which will produce a
draft constitution for the enlarged EU - will today call on the Convention
to abandon calls to protect the right to form or join a trade union or to
take industrial action.

Jean Lambert, London's Green Party MEP and Vice-President of the European
Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee, has written to Mr
Hain
urging him to rethink the Government's position.

She said: "By now we're well used to a Labour government that serves the
interests of big business rather than workers but this latest attack takes
New Labour's rejection of basic workers' rights to an unprecedented level.

"Freedom to form or join a trade union - or to take industrial action
in defense of pay or conditions - is enshrined in international law.
Yet Mr Hain is today proposing that any attempt by the EU to uphold
these basic human rights will threaten Europe's competitiveness in
international markets. This is scandalous - and could lead to workers
across the EU losing basic union rights in a 'race to the bottom'
chase for cheap labour - though I believe the measures will be opposed
by more socially responsible member states."

The Government's latest attack on the unions comes on the same day as
FBU leader Andy Gilchrist warned further Fire Service strikes were
likely before the end of the month and after a winter marked by an
increase in industrial action by unions across the public sector.

It was presented to the Convention on the Future of Europe's working group
on the EU's 'social dimension' as the official position of the Governments
of the UK, Spain and Estonia, which is due to join the EU in 2004 - though
it is widely believed to have been written by Mr Hain.

In the document, Mr Hain frankly explains the Government's position:
"Legislation to protect employment can act as a barrier to job creation
[and] put uncompetitive costs on businesses."

The Government's position statement goes on to call for industrial
relations to remain subject to member state veto - effectively
crippling the EU's ability to act on any matter affecting workers'
rights, to question whether the EU should have any role to play in
promoting common social values, and to limit the role of elected MEPs
and the unions themselves in future legislation on union rights.

Mrs Lambert added: "The Government is completely out of step here -
with international law, with human rights standards, with the unions
and with the British people.

"Any exclusion of basic worker protection in the eventual EU
constitution will benefit multi-national business and the Government's
unashamedly neo-liberal agenda at the expense of the very people Mr
Hain and the Government have been elected to represent. The
Government's tactic of saying one thing in public - and quite another
during inter-Governmental negotiations - means its anti-union stance
has been largely hidden from the unions themselves.

"I am very interested to see how those unions that still believe Labour to
be the party that best represents their interests react to this latest
attack on their fundamental rights to exist and organise. "


ENDS
For more information please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280 or 0776 997
0691

Note to Editors

1. Copies of Mr Hain's statement on behalf of the UK, Spanish and Estonian
governments - and Mrs Lambert's response to the Minister - are available on
request from Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280.
Ben Duncan
Green MEPs' Press Officer
Suite 58, The Hop Exchange, 24 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TY
020 7407 6280 (tel)
0776 997 0691 (mob)
020 7234 0183 (fax)
 press@greenmeps.org.uk