Observations on migrants
If you are one of those who believe that British trade unions are hostile to free markets and wedded to the tired old politics of state regulation and public sector job protection, prepare for a surprise.
From 11 September in Brighton, the Trades Union Congress will demonstrate its enthusiasm for the free movement of labour with a show of tolerance towards the current inflow of migrant workers, mainly from eastern and central Europe. Far from clamouring for controls, the unions will back an open-door policy and oppose any government move to stem the flow.
"We are going to raise our public profile on this issue," declares Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary. "We favour the free movement of labour and intend to say so loud and clear."
The TUC will give a public welcome to those Romanian and Bulgarian workers who may arrive here next year, when the two Balkan countries are due to join the European Union. It wants to ensure that these workers enjoy the same statutory minimum wage, reasonable hours of work, health and safety protections and other benefits to which British workers are entitled.
"Gordon Brown and other ministers always like to talk about our need to come to terms with the realities of globalisation. But they want to manage the supply of foreign labour, which we disagree with," says one TUC senior official. In fact, not one trade union in Britain has so far voiced any public opposition to inward labour migration, and none is under pressure to do so from members.
This is in the best tradition of the labour movement. Ever since the late 19th century, our trade unions have displayed a broad-minded and idealistic attitude towards immigrants, be they Jews fleeing tsarist Russia or postwar workers from the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent, though there have been exceptions, as in 1969 when London dockers famously marched in support of Enoch Powell.
Today, the TUC can find no evidence that the present inflow is putting members out of work; the arrivals tend to go to where job vacancies exist and not to areas with high unemployment.
But unions want more active strategies to help foreign workers fit in. They are campaigning for better language training, the provision of education in key skills and the extension of existing labour rights to all workers, wherever they come from. Some, such as the Transport and General Workers' Union, the shopworkers (Usdaw) and those in the building trade (Ucatt), are already recruiting among migrant workers.
The TUC is spearheading an initiative in support of vulnerable groups - agency workers, students and others who find themselves excluded from the formal labour market, as well as those most at risk of exploitation by unscrupulous employers. Although unions want to link up with private companies in the drive to raise labour standards, they say they have had a surprisingly cool response from business lobbies such as the Confederation of British Industry.
Trade-union support for foreign workers is part of the wider strategy of seeking a Europe with more equal social arrangements for all workers across the continent, and not just those who belong to trade unions. So unions see the new arrivals as a stimulus for cross-border networks, with the emphasis on raising standards.
Instead of fearing workers from eastern and central Europe as a threat to members' jobs, the unions regard their arrival as a stimulus to organise. The TUC is rejecting insular attitudes, fuelled not only by racists on the extreme right but also by some on the so-called intellectual left with their vague talk of "progressive nationalism".
Union leaders also intend to resist any pandering to the right on these issues by ministers. They believe they are the enlightened modernisers, and that new Labour needs to show the same courage they have.
Robert Taylor is research associate at the Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics.
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