Unions and their members should seize “a moment for change” and push the government to deliver on its manifesto commitments to workers, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak has said.
In an exclusive interview with LabourList ahead of the TUC Congress, which begins this Sunday, Nowak said he still remains optimistic about the new Labour government, despite Keir Starmer’s recent warnings that things will get worse before they get better.
However, he said that Labour’s commitments on the New Deal for Working People and other areas could go further to support workers.
He said: “This will be the first Congress in 15 years that we’ve actually got a Labour government – and if I reflect on that period of Conservative government, I think they’ve been an absolute disaster for our members and the people we represent.
“The Tories have bequeathed a toxic legacy to the country and to the incoming government. There are plenty of challenges but I think that that optimism will be undimmed at Congress and people will be looking forward to hearing from the new government about exactly how they’re going to deliver the manifesto and deliver the hope that working people desperately need.”
Fixing the country’s broken public services
As Nowak looks back on the last Conservative government, he reflects on the mood of the nation about the state of the country’s public services.
“There isn’t one public service I can think of that is better now than it was 14 years ago,” he said.
Polling from the TUC shows the public shares Nowak’s concern, with nearly three-quarters of voters feeling that public services have got worse over the last five years.
The TUC is calling on the government to fix the country’s “broken public realm” with a Public Sector Workforce Commission, which would bring together unions, employers and independent experts to tackle challenges facing the public sector, in particular the recruitment and retention crisis and ensuring decent pay and conditions for workers.
Nowak called on the government to “take seriously the idea of starting fresh in our public services and start with a view on what we can all do to work together to rebuild them”.
‘The biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation’
While Nowak said he is “always going to be more ambitious for working people”, he said that the government’s New Deal for Working People is “the biggest upgrade of workers’ and union rights in a generation”, including simplifying the union recognition procedure, the repeal of the Trade Union Act, the expansion of day one rights for workers and a ban on zero hours contracts.
“This will be a really potentially game-changing shift in workplaces. I’ve been at the TUC since the end of the 1990s and I can’t think of a more ambitious programme for the world of work than the one the government put in front of the British public,” Nowak said.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re going to stop saying that there’s more that could be done.”
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‘It wasn’t the pay of teachers that was driving inflation’
The first weeks of the new government have seen efforts to address strike action with new pay deals with unions. Nowak was quick to dismiss suggestions from the right-wing press that such moves could trigger a wage-price spiral.
“It’s the same old tired lines that were trotted out during a period of high inflation that we had under the previous government. I think even in the end the Bank of England had to admit there was no evidence at all of a wage-price spiral in the UK economy.
“It wasn’t the pay of teachers of supermarket workers that was driving inflation and things like energy costs, so I don’t think paying a decent pay rise for public sector workers will drive a wage price spiral at all.”
On the contrary, Nowak said that the pay settlement should give the economy a “much-needed boost”, as those workers go on to spend their salary in local bars, local shops and buying local goods and services.
“Our members don’t squirrel away pay rises in offshore tax havens,” he said.
The need for a ‘just transition’
Nowak said that he understands the concerns of the GMB and Unite around their calls for a just transition to cleaner energy in the North Sea over fears of job losses. He said that the new government should work to avoid the devastation caused to communities in the 1980s following the transition away from mining.
Nowak said: “It’s not enough to give them warm words and say ‘don’t worry, there’ll be new green jobs in the future and overall this will benefit the economy. If I’m working on an oil platform now, I want to know what’s going to happen to my job, what that means for me and my family and also my community.
“A lot of these jobs are geographically concentrated, whether it’s in Aberdeen or other hubs, so I think it is essential that government and employers are engaging with unions in talks about transition.
“If you’re serious about just transition, you need to be serious about things like job guarantees, income guarantees, mapping out how people can transition from one sector to another.
“We’re still dealing with the impact of poorly managed industrial action. It’s the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike, the decimation of the mining industry and an industrial transition that was completely sabotaged by the then Conservative government. Communities are still suffering the effects of that now and we’ve seen it in other areas, whether it’s manufacturing jobs or steel.”
READ MORE: Government launches GB Energy to accelerate renewable energy investment
Combatting Reform UK by ‘delivering the change people voted for’
The general election saw Reform UK perform strongly among manual workers and low-income voters. With the rise of the hard right and far-right across parts of Europe, Nowak said, while unions have a role in bringing people together and challenging the politics of hate and division, the best and most important way to combat the threat of Nigel Farage is for Labour to deliver on its manifesto commitments and “prove that politicians keep their word”.
He said: “Reform and the right of the Tory Party thrive on cynicism; they want to create that impression that politics and politicians are all the same, that it doesn’t matter who you vote for, the status quo will always prevail.
“I think Labour have got an opportunity; they’ve got the majority and a majority of people clearly voted for change. Let’s deliver that change – that means delivering that New Deal for workers in the first 100 days of the Labour government, it means rebuilding and repairing our public services, and it means a proper industrial strategy that puts good quality jobs at its heart.
“If Labour can do that and demonstrate the positive difference politics can make, that politicians do keep their promises, that’ll go a long way to cutting the legs from under the likes of Farage.
“I’m not cynical about politics. I’ve lived the last 14 of the Conservative government and I know the difference a Labour government can make. I think what they’ve got to do now is demonstrate that to the country at large to deliver the change that people voted for.”
Nowak’s message for workers
As unions prepare to head down to the south coast for the TUC Congress in Brighton, what is Nowak’s message to workers?
“We’ve got a moment of opportunity, it’s a moment for change. We’ve just got to make sure we seize the moment,” he said.
“That means supporting and pushing the government to deliver the manifesto which it was elected to do.
“I think what I’ll also be saying to our unions is that we’ve got to play our part as well. We don’t just want a new deal for workers introduced; we want to use that new deal to build the trade union movement, make sure we are in more workplaces that give more of a union voice to more workers – because ultimately, it’s us in workplaces that can deliver people the decent pay rises they deserve and that can make sure their voice is listened to by the boss.
“Politics isn’t a spectator sport. It’s time for us to roll up our sleeves, get involved and make sure we build our own movement. At the end of this term of the Labour government, I want to see those new rights in workplaces, I want to see more people being able to exercise those rights and I want to see growing, strong, vibrant, diverse trade union movements as a result of it as well.”
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