Stronger unions are good for our economy and democracy

In uniting Tony Blair and Len McCluskey today over his speech on party reform, Ed Miliband appears to have achieved impressive unity in difficult circumstances. The Labour Party wouldn’t have existed without the role of the trade unions and there will always be a link between the two even if the precise nature of that relationship evolves.

But the wider debate about trade unionism in the UK following events in Falkirk, particularly as reported in some elements of the press, risks demonising the millions of decent trade union members up and down the country. These people – who care for parents and grandparents in old age, teach our children, and work in our factories – have no interest in, nor anything to do with, political skulduggery of whatever form.

Forgotten in the recent debate is the fact that Britain’s economy and democracy can be enhanced through strong trade unions. Capitalist economies will always produce winners and losers; there will always be a power imbalance between bosses and workers. Trade unions play a critical role in correcting that disparity.

Even as growth starts to pick up in the UK, average wages have been falling compared to inflation. Pressure has been building for the government to raise the minimum wage and for companies to start offering a more generous “living” wage. Strong unions are part of the solution to this. Recent research by Professor Damian Grimshaw of Manchester University shows that countries with a stronger culture of collective bargaining tend to have higher minimum wages. In the United States, levels of union membership and the rate of inequality have behaved like a see-saw for close to 100 years. As more people joined trade unions in the 1930s and 1940s, inequality fell, while the reverse has been true since the 1970s. The respected American economist, Lane Kenworthy, has argued that “An increase in unionization would very likely help middle and low-end households to capture a larger share of economic growth.”

Trade unions also play an important role in protecting workers from the negative impact of technological change and globalisation, which can threaten jobs. The TUC has been encouraging companies up and down the country to develop lifelong learning in the workplace which helps workers to raise their skills and remain competitive despite the advancement of low wage economies like China. They have also called for stronger rules to weed out sub-standard apprenticeships which are underpaid, don’t provide adequate training and don’t produce a job at the end of the period.

From my own time shadowing the GMB’s Convenor at Crown Paints in Darwen, Bob Welham, I saw first hand the constructive role that trade unions can play in creating a bridge between management and workers through the General Works Council but also in providing continuity for the management as the company was bought and sold by international investors.

If we are to see more evenly shared prosperity in the UK, we must see an increase in the number of members and the range of sectors from which they come. Thankfully, membership is on the rise in the UK increasing by 59,000 to 6.5 million in 2012. But more could be done—especially in sectors like retail, tourism and construction. In Australia, union membership has increased rapidly in recent years. After putting in place a range of recruitment strategies including compelling every union official to devote a month each year to signing up new workers, the Australian Workers Union saw membership rise by up to 14 per cent per year in some states. From a low of 1.70 million in 2007, membership had risen across the country to 1.84 million by 2012.

Strong trade unions can enhance democracy too. In the United States, the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) under Andy Stern embraced new online organising techniques and helped pave the way from Barack Obama’s historic victory in 2008. Stern’s campaigning, built on the back of an expanding membership, paved the way for the passage of universal healthcare reform. In the UK, the unions have been generous funders of causes across the left including Hope Not Hate, which campaigns against racism and extremism, and have supported campaigns to protect the NHS, highlight the impact of austerity on women and defend the rights of disabled people.

Brave though Ed Miliband’s reforms may be, the real question for British democracy and prosperity is not whether union members are opted in or opted out, nor whether the affiliation is direct or indirect. The real test is whether union membership across the UK is increasing or decreasing and whether members are seeing the value of their membership through a more prosperous, equal and fair Britain.

Will Straw is writing in a personal capacity