Jack Dromey, T&G deputy general secretary, earlier this month called for a serious debate about irregular working, in rejecting the arguments of right wing think-tank Migrationwatch, who campaign against mass migration. Mr. Dromey called for irregular workers to become regularised, by way of an amnesty.
"Our country and economy needs migrant workers. Irregular working is part of our economy and we need a serious debate about how to tackle it. "
"Rather than criminalising irregular migrants, many of whom have lived and raised their families in the UK for years, we should establish a way for them to work and contribute legally. If countries like the United States, Spain and Italy can have an amnesty, politicians wanting a sensible discussion should be prepared to consider its benefits.
This is consistent with the policy of UNISON Conference – agreed last year – which is that;
a) that no worker should be classed as illegal;
b) all workers have a right to put a roof over their head and food on the table;
c) all workers should enjoy the same rights at work, including the right to organise a union;
d) it is not the workers who should be blamed, prosecuted and deported for working here without papers, it is the employers and gangmasters who make it possible. Only with an amnesty for the workers and a few company directors prosecuted will we see any improvement in this shameful situation.
Several unions are doing good work to organise migrant workers – but without an amnesty many trade union members are vulnerable to being “shopped” to immigration – which means we are hamstrung in mobilising the collective strength of our members to contest the exploitation which they face from rogue employers.
The unions now have an opportunity to push this policy position forward at this year’s TUC Congress by putting the demand for an amnesty as an amendment to a very worthy motion on Migrant Workers which has been placed on the preliminary agenda by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS).
Will we take this opportunity or will we let migrant workers – including our migrant members – down?
7 comments:
nice one!
unions must indeed campaign for migrant workers--with or without permission from the home office--to have equal pay, equal conditions and full citizenship rights.
the TGWU position is a great step forward. but we must beware the agenda of gordon brown who is currently discussing an "amnesty". he is likely to limit this so that many register only to find themselves deported and everyone else finds they have a limted period to work here but no right to sickness or unemployment benefit--in other words an amnesty that serves only the interests of the bosses.
so i agree we need to support the TGWU position but also to fight for every worker to have equal rights and, above all, to have a cmapign in the unions now to organise the marginalised and to create a trades unionism that is a bastion against the racists and that fights at the base of all the unions to create real solidarity.
at present i suspect that jack Dromey is far ahead of some of his members and all the unions need to fight to make solidarity a reality and to argue against the racist ideas of new labour, tories etc which currently dominate the media and which sadly, influence some trades unionists
nice one!
unions must indeed campaign for migrant workers--with or without permission from the home office--to have equal pay, equal conditions and full citizenship rights.
the TGWU position is a great step forward. but we must beware the agenda of gordon brown who is currently discussing an "amnesty". he is likely to limit this so that many register only to find themselves deported and everyone else finds they have a limted period to work here but no right to sickness or unemployment benefit--in other words an amnesty that serves only the interests of the bosses.
so i agree we need to support the TGWU position but also to fight for every worker to have equal rights and, above all, to have a cmapign in the unions now to organise the marginalised and to create a trades unionism that is a bastion against the racists and that fights at the base of all the unions to create real solidarity.
at present i suspect that jack Dromey is far ahead of some of his members and all the unions need to fight to make solidarity a reality and to argue against the racist ideas of new labour, tories etc which currently dominate the media and which sadly, influence some trades unionists
This will not happen especially in the light of Spanish experience. Dromey had to say that as penance for blowing the whistle. The reason for his statement was not to clear the way for this policy to happen but rather to reinforce the (manifestly and palpably low) semi-official estimate of 500,000 illegal workers.
Illegal workers are a big problem for any economy as their presence encourages exploitation and makes it virtually impossible for scrupulous employers to survive in certain industries. We should be penalising employers of illegal immigrants thus choking the supply of jobs to them. They would soon move on to the next soft target - so no need for an extensive deportation programme.
Right well I seem to have published the same comment twice there (sorry elane!)
praguetory I would say two things
(1) who chooses these Email names? and - more to the point -
(2) illegal workers are not a problem because there is no such thing as an illegal worker, there are just workers who don't have the papers required by whichever officialdom is trying to assert control over their little bit of the globe. We can't stop the flow of people around the globe and shouldn't try. The job of the trade union movemement is to represent the working class, which is a global, international class.
If the unions collude with a crackdown on our migrant brothers and sisters we will simply encourage support for the far right by pandering to their racism.
We should have more confidence in our anti-racism and in the common sense of our rank and file members.
Your reply sounds like the least convincing part an argument for globalisation! - I take that means that you don't mind offshoring.
Praguetory, I'm on the side of the workers - so I defend the right of workers to move around the world. I'm not on the side of the bosses so I don't defend their rights to move jobs around the world. It's called socialism.
I notice your comments are not against the union doing what your suggesting , isnt that bad reporting !!!
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