The TUC’s stance on the EU is making them look like Orwellian Pigs

 

Recently Lord Stuart Rose, the former Chairman of Marks and Spencer and now the chairman of ‘Britain Stronger in Europe’ admitted that workers’ wages would rise after Brexit.  He also added that high immigration which lowers wages was an integral part of staying in the EU. So the Trade Union Congress (TUC) could have been expected to shout ‘that leaving the EU would improve the salaries of low paid workers across Britain’.

Unfortunately they did not shout.

Instead the TUC did the complete opposite and joined their supposed great enemy, the pro big business Europhile Conservatives, on joint platforms spouting the global capitalist agenda of the EU’s free movement policy. 

Brendan Barber who led the TUC up to 2012 even took centre stage with David Cameron, the Conservative Prime Minister known for his supposed loathing of Trade Unions.

Jeremy Corbyn has recently said that the Conservatives would burn up workers’ rights, supporting the TUC who were saying they were out to destroy Trade Union rights as well. They had accused the Conservatives of believing that workers’ rights are expendable for the benefit of profit. Yet, the TUC now wants ‘workers’ to trust the Conservatives and they have joined them in the EU mission to reduce salaries.

But by joining and supporting the Conservative government’s stance on the EU the TUC leadership have damaged their claims that David Cameron is not to be trusted.

The Workers of England Union (WEU) is not surprised by the TUC’s stance as it has thought for years that the TUC had forgotten they are supposed to represent English workers. The WEU believes that staying in the EU will damage our working conditions and wages. Listen again to the words of Lord Rose, who was speaking as the head of ‘Britain stronger in Europe’ he couldn’t have been clearer. Rose and his big business chums want a low wage economy! That is why they support the EU!

So what on earth are the TUC supporting the campaign to Remain in the EU if the case being given for staying in by a Conservative Peer is lower wages?   The words ‘hypocrites’ or ‘foolish’ comes to mind when discussing TUC support for the EU. The Conservatives haven’t even hidden their approach. Profit from trade comes before workers’ rights.

But the TUC has made matters even worse because they attempted to cover up their support for the Conservatives by giving spurious facts about EU benefits. They declared that it is the EU that has given us our workers’ rights. If that is the case, what is the point of the TUC, we obviously all don’t need them if workers’ rights are all down to the EU. The TUC has essentially admitted that it’s ineffective when campaigning for workers’ rights in the UK.

Are they also covering up that under the EU, English workers have the lowest number of bank holidays out of all the EU nations? They certainly appear to have forgotten that British Steel collapsed because we are in the EU. They appear to have forgotten that the impact of uncontrolled immigration means that even more people will be going for every one job, which in turn means that the wages will remain low throughout the EU. It is not rocket science to see that wages are lowering because they already are.

The TUC has also forgotten the successful struggle for our rights by English, Welsh and Scottish people. In England you only have to say words ‘Tolpuddle martyrs’ to Trade Union activists to realise how wrong the TUC are for saying ‘we owe everything to the EU’.

Those English martyrs would be turning in their graves because they did not need the EU, it wasn’t in existence. They fought for their own rights and were successful because they had the help of fellow countrymen.

It is disgusting that these individuals within the TUC reject our Trade Union past and can still call themselves Trade Unionists. It could be that now we are becoming aware how far removed they are from our working class experiences.

In fact these Trade Union leaders have become rich themselves off the back of the working class, who pay their union subscriptions. For example, the BBC reported in September 2012 that Brendan Barber’s salary was over £100, 000 a year with a reported £100,000 pay off.   George Orwell’s ‘Animal farm’ describes it well. The pigs initially led the revolution against Farmer, Mr. Jones but in the end they had more in common with the master than the workers. By standing with David Cameron’s lot they have shown who they truly are, ‘Orwellian Pigs’.

Take the time to listen to Jeremy Corbyn who recently admitted that he understood what the impact of uncontrolled and unplanned migrant labour was having on our wages yet he is still supporting the EU. He was elected on an anti-capitalist agenda, but after only 7 months as the Labour Leader he is standing up for the pro capitalist EU. This is an EU that wants to secretly introduce the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that will see the destruction of our NHS. Could it be that he like Brendan Barber is rich enough and out of touch enough with workers to oppose the struggle to protect wages from being reduced?

The TUC are wrong to support the EU and their misguided support for the Conservative government will see the British workers paying the price with lower wages because of it.