In response to Ed Balls' Comment on EU Immigration Unite Assistant General Secretary, Les Bayliss said:
"Ed Balls is absolutely correct. The current situation of immigration from the EU combined with weak employment protection in this country has led to widespread exploitation of workers in the construction industry. Wage levels are being undercut and national bargaining agreements are being ignored. We need to tighten up on regulations to protect domestic workers' ability to get jobs and to earn a decent living, whilst at the same time allowing skilled workers from the EU to come here without fear of being cheated by unscrupulous employers."
Les Bayliss has national responsibility for the construction industry including the Olympic site in London. Unite is Britain's biggest union for construction workers.
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And once again backward trades union leaders fall in behind racist rhetoric. What happened to your class consciousness, eh? Gone with the defeat of the Miners in '84 is my guess.
ReplyDeleteThe UK Trades Union movement had an inglorious history of racism even before the defeat of the miners, when the working class had some small degree of class consciousness. So often union bosses railed against immigration as lowering domestic workers' pay and conditions and actively collaborated in anti-immigration legislation. Proper unions, such as you get in France or Spain, have class consciousness and internationalism at their heart. Over in this backward, declining ex-imperial nation, too many union leaderships, and sadly good chunks of their members (as witness the Lincolnshire refinery strikes), believe in the slogan "British jobs for British workers". Tough titties on those workers coming here to better their lives, eh? Just like my Irish mother... But then the Irish are 'cool' these days...
Still, maybe unions can't be blamed for reflecting the reactionary and racist views of so many of their unconscious members, but a bit of moral and political leadership (such as Bob Crow provides) would help.