Unions urged to ‘make poverty history’ at home
The government must engage with the trade union movement to make poverty history in Britain and abroad, the president of the TUC urged today.
Opening the annual conference in Brighton, Jeannie Drake warned that Britain remains one of the most unequal societies in the developed world and that more needed to be done to address worklessness and the poverty that inevitably came with it.
The recent devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina revealed “the vulnerability of the poor even in the midst of US plenty”, she said, indicating that “mighty challenges” remained in tackling poverty even in the world’s richest countries.
“Now is not the time to be held back by the poverty of ambition,” said Ms Drake, who is also deputy general secretary of the Communication and General Workers’ Union (CGWU).
Ms Drake acknowledged progress had been made in improving the situation of workers in Britain, such as the introduction of the national minimum wage, protection of temporary and agency staff and efforts to reduce the gender pay gap.
But unions must continue fighting for social justice, which included addressing the problems of discrimination and pensions, she told delegates.
The president called for a “general political partnership on pensions”, particular with regard to women, saying a three-way partnership between the state, employers and workers was required if the looming pensions crisis in Britain was to be addressed.
Unions must also continue campaigning to improve equality, to ensure the “massive cultural shift” that was needed to end discrimination against minority ethnic groups and disabled people.
However, if any of this was to be achieved, Ms Drake admitted, the trade union movement must address its decline in membership – its “greatest challenge”.
Last year membership of unions went up by more than 20,000, but she warned action had to be taken to locate the “missing millions” and recruit more people into the trade union family, especially in the private sector.
“Every union has a responsibility to support action in the workplace to end discrimination,” she said, but success depended on the “collective strength of the movement”.
Ms Drake concluded: “We know another world, a better world is possible. It’s a world that we must keep fighting for.”
