Unions back Prospect motion to send message to government on EU ‘red lines’

Unions at TUC congress in Brighton have voted in favour of a motion brought by Prospect calling on the government to abandon its ‘red lines’ with Europe in order to drive growth and protect workers’ rights.

The motion pointed to global instability, the negative impact on the economy of Brexit, and the risk of UK workers falling behind their European counterparts.It called for the General Council to:

i. develop and implement a strategy to persuade the government to negotiate the deepest possible partnership with the EU, prioritising the needs of working people. This partnership should be guided by the national interest, not by arbitrary red lines, and no options should be off the table

ii. work in solidarity with like-minded union confederations in Europe to build coordinated pressure for a close, worker-focused, UK-EU relationship.

The motion was debated and passed today (Tuesday 15 September).

Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, said:

“As the representatives of working people, trade unions understand the critical importance of the UK-EU relationship and have seen the damage of Brexit first-hand. The economic damage has been significant but so too the slippage in workers’ rights with those in the UK missing out on important EU directives around, for example, collective bargaining.

“With the global economy struggling, and Trump’s threats once again causing instability and confusion, it is even more important that the UK rebuilds our relationship with our closest allies and neighbours in Europe.

“Keir Starmer’s ‘red lines’ placed unnecessary constraints on EU talks, which made a good deal for Britain harder to obtain. The new Prime Minister should chart his own course on Europe, reject the overtures from Team Trump to dump consumer, worker, and environmental protections, and explore all avenues to increase cooperation on trade, defence and other key issues including through closer integration with the single market.

“Unions have sent a clear message to the government today.”