This CLP notes:

1. The pandemic and cost of living crisis has bought into sharp focus the imbalance of power in the workplace that trade unions and the Labour Party have long sought to rectify. Wages have stagnated for over a decade, and work is becoming increasingly insecure.
2. Since the Tories came to power 13 years ago, in-work poverty, low pay, and financial insecurity have become rampant. Incomes have stagnated and many workers have experienced real terms pay decline. In-work poverty has hit new highs, with one in six working households in poverty. Wages have suffered a decade of stagnation – the worst in over a century.
3. Restrictive anti-trade union laws, most recently the Trade Union Act, have made it harder for unions to organise and stand up for their members. These restrictions mean workers are denied their fair share of the wealth they create, whilst a lack of collective representation has led to a race to the bottom. The right of unions to operate effectively in the workplace, in each sector of the economy, is vital for achieving fairness, dignity and democracy at work for all.
4. Labour’s New Deal for Working People, launched by Angela Rayner at Conference 2021. It includes the following commitments:

• Labour will strengthen rights at work for all workers, from day one on the job.
• Labour will end fire and rehire.
• Labour will make work more family-friendly, and make it easier to balance work with home, community and family life.
• Labour will ban zero-hours contracts and ensure everyone has the right to regular hours they can rely on.
• Labour will strengthen trade union rights, raising pay and conditions.
• Labour will bring in Fair Pay Agreements to drive up pay and conditions for all workers, using sectoral collective bargaining.

5. Keir Starmer has promised that a Labour Government will write this plan into law within 100 days of taking office.

This CLP Believes:

1. Working people need better rights, stronger unions and a Labour Government to win the new deal at work they deserve.
2. The direct link to working people, through affiliated trade unions, makes the Labour Party unique and gives us direct insight into the lives of the people we seek to represent.
3. The link between the Party and the union movement should be strengthened – across the whole Party, and in Old Bexley & Sidcup CLP.
4. To win the support of the broad coalition of voters that Labour needs to unite in order to win, it is essential that Labour demonstrates it understands voters’ lives and can be trusted to improve them. That must include a major focus on work, and workplace issues, which unite working age voters in every part of the country. To win, Labour must have a clear agenda, developed jointly with the union movement, for a new deal for working people and their families – and clearly articulated to the public.
5. Work, jobs and pay are issues that unite voters in every part of the country.
6. Labour should articulate a broad and positive vision to transform the world of work, and must place this at the heart of its core narrative.
7. The Tories’ Strikes Bill is an outrageous attack on the right to strike, designed to force key workers back to work under threat of being sacked. In two years, the Conservatives have gone from clapping key workers to threatening to fire them for taking action for fair pay.

This CLP Resolves:

1. To welcome and support the Green Paper on Employment Rights, and Keir Starmer’s pledge to enshrine it in law within the first 100 days of the next Labour government.
2. To welcome Labour’s clear opposition to the Strikes Bill, and the Leadership’s promise to repeal it if it is passed.
3. To call on the Party to make issues around work, jobs and pay a core part of their narrative and vision.
4. To call on the Party to provide campaign materials and resources to enable CLPs to campaign on these issues in their community and with unions in local workplaces.
5. To call on the London Labour Party to help build the movement by running an annual digital trade union membership drive to encourage party members to join an affiliated trade union, pay the political levy, and support unions’ industrial campaigns in their region.
6. To strengthen the link between our CLP and the trade unions by:

1. Ask members to consider joining a Union and encourage others to join.
2. Ensuring that there is a standing item on the agenda for the All Members’ meeting on trade union issues, to provide an opportunity to provide an update on union campaigns.

• Inviting, on a regular basis, a speaker from the trade union movement to address the General Meeting on their industrial priorities and key campaigns.

1. Promoting the New Deal for working people campaign http://www.labourunions.org.uk/newdeal to local Party members.

Ends

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