Greens back positive charter of worker and trade union rights

1 October 2022

Green Party conference today pledged to support working people resisting the latest anti-trades union laws and committed itself to working with unions to establish a charter of positive rights. [1]

Professor Catherine Rowett, Green Party Work, Employment and Social Security spokesperson, said:

“The Conservative government is enabling firms to use agency workers to replace striking workers and break strike action, further undermining people’s democratic rights. These laws are the latest in a long line designed to restrict trade unions and worker organisation. 

“Trade union rights are fundamental to a free society and enabled us to achieve major improvements in working conditions during the 20th century. It is terrifying to see those improvements being rolled back and the democratic freedoms that secured them taken away. 

“The erosion of workers’ rights under successive Tory governments since Thatcher has contributed to rising inequality and exploitation of workers, leading to a dystopian prospect as the current government seeks to repeal protective EU regulations.”

Matthew Hull, Chair of the Green Party Trade Union Group, who proposed the successful motion, said:

“‘I’m delighted that the Green Party is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with working people struggling against precarious work, soaring prices and stagnant wages.

“We want to see the repeal of existing anti-union and anti-strike laws. 

“They should be replaced with a positive charter of worker and trade union rights, enshrining the fundamental right to organise and strike, drawn up in consultation with trade unions. Those rights must include the right to take industrial action to demand ecological justice.” 

Notes 

1 The full motion can be read here: http://greencoordinate.co.uk/agenda/motions/stating-opposition-to-anti-union-and-anti-strike-laws/

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