Osborne’s cruel joke on manufacturing

During the eighties our industrial base was decimated.  Margaret Thatcher in pursuit of new-liberal economics and her attacks on the trade unions ripped apart the post-war consensus.  Whole swathes of the country were plunged into a manufacturing abyss. Corby the steel town – shut down.  Sheffield, Newcastle, Sunderland and Liverpool – all cities dependent on traditional industries sent into major decline.

Over the decades governments of both persuasions pursued a similar economic path.

Now Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader and Angela Eagle’s appointment as the new shadow secretary of state for Business, Innovation and Skills heralds in new political times. Up against Sajid Javid, her opposite number in government, during the debate on its draconian Trade Union bill, Angela has already shown her mettle.

With recent figures showing industrial output diving sharply, a widening trade deficit and a nine per cent fall in the export of goods, especially in the chemicals and manufacturing sectors, she put him right on where government priorities should lie:

“I am dismayed that we have a government which believes in attacking trade unions rather than working with them in the spirit of social partnership to improve economic efficiency and productivity in our country.”

We have a government and a chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, who devotes too much time on political tactics and point scoring instead of coming to grips in formulating a coherent industrial and manufacturing strategy.

Our message remains that for the UK economy to prosper there has to be a rebalancing of the economy away from an over reliance on the service and finance sectors – to a strong manufacturing base.

For five years the Tories boasted that they would ‘rebalance the economy’ and boost manufacturing.  It hasn’t happened.  Osborne’s ‘March of the Makers’ has disappeared in the rear view mirror.

Our economy is still over-reliant on financial services – and without the success of our automotive and aerospace sectors growth would be back where it was in 2007.

During the election the Tory rhetoric was of a ‘Northern Powerhouse’.  Within weeks of the election there was a ‘pause’ in vital upgrades to major rail lines in the Midlands and the north of England. Like the promise of “rebalancing the economy.”   The Northern Powerhouse is a cruel joke!

And if anyone needed proof of this cruel joke then the people of Redcar have had it today with the devastating news that SSI was mothballing its Redcar plant with the loss of 1,700 jobs along with the thousands who depend on the steelworks for their livelihoods.

In his first speech as Secretary of State at BIS, Sajid Javid talked about productivity, comparing the UK with Germany and stating it ‘took UK workers five days to produce what German workers produce in four’.

What Mr Javid failed to say was that in Germany productivity is higher because:

• Workers and Unions play a full part in their companies through strong unions who are informed and consulted.

• Angela Merkel recognises the importance of trade unions.

• They have a well-structured skills and apprenticeship system.

• They support small and medium sized companies.

And most importantly during the dark days of the recession, German companies kept their workforces together

In a fast moving globalised world the current trading system in the UK is complex and fragmented. Germany pulls the relevant bodies, including government, business and the unions, together. They have an export strategy that is lacking in the UK.

We need Labour to take a lead in developing a sustainable economy based on decent work, stable jobs with a strong manufacturing base.   We need a manufacturing strategy to help grow the economy and avoid another economic disaster.

We need to win back those workers who walked away from us in May this year. Jeremy and Angela can do that by being clear that by working together the UK will prosper and thrive. By having policies that means growth is fairly shared, that there will be decent, stable jobs and apprenticeships for their families.

That is how we will begin the process of a fight back from the general election defeat.

Tony Burke is Assistant General Secretary at Unite