‘A century of keeping Labour true to working people – and the work continues’

This week, we celebrated 100 years of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs.

From its inception in the 1920s, this historic group has made sure the voices of working people and their representatives in the trade unions are heard loud and clear – in Parliament and at the very heart of government.

A trawl through the archives reveals the Trade Union Group hosted meetings and debates with towering figures from our Party, like Barbara Castle, Ellen Wilkinson, Nye Bevin, Michael Foot, Harold Wilson, Tony Benn and Tony Blair.

But what makes this Group so special is the ability to bring leading trade unionists into Parliament, with Jack Jones, Rodney Bickerstaffe, Bill Whatley and Arthur Scargill all making an appearance.

And of course, the Trade Union Group has always gone out of our way to support workers in pivotal disputes: the railway workers, posties, NHS workers, print workers at Wapping, workers at GCHQ and the miners.

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Through all of this, the Trade Union Group has always made the case that the Labour Party and the trade union movement are stronger together. 

The Group has worked to keep the Labour Party and Labour governments honest, keeping them true to the Party’s roots and its founding purpose of giving a voice to working people.

One of the key ways we keep Labour honest is by getting more trade unionists and workers into Parliament; not lobbying from the outside, but in government, delivering for workers. That’s why the Trade Union Group is proud to work with TULO on the joint union political leadership programme, and why we won’t rest until our party looks and sounds like the workers and communities we represent.

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When the Trade Union Group was founded in the 1920s, working people faced many of the same issues we do today, like insecure work and a high cost of living. Today, we have a comprehensive plan to address this: Labour’s New Deal for Working People – with the Employment Rights Act the first step in delivering this.

The Employment Rights Act makes huge changes to the world of work, introducing sick pay from day one, Fair Pay Agreements for Adult Social Care, and a day one right to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave. It repeals draconian Tory anti-union laws, like the 2016 Trade Union Act and Minimum Service Levels Act, which were designed to tie unions up in knots.

Now we need to get the implementation right, to make sure the Act works in practice in workplaces across the country, particularly on trade union access rights, on fire and rehire, and on making sure every worker has the right to a guaranteed hours contract that reflects the hours they actually work.

Then we need to deliver the New Deal for Working People in full. This includes a single status of worker, new equal pay rights, delivering positive outcomes for the parental leave review and a review of health and safety, to name just a few of these transformative reforms.

We owe it to those that have come before us to take the historic opportunity that lies before us now. Half measures are not enough. Working people need the rights that the New Deal for Working People offers – we must deliver it in full.

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