GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

collective sectoral bargaining. So it is no coincidence that those two things are

happening at the same time.

Another thing, for me, that epitomises the world of work today is the pressure

that is on workers. I often use this phrase that wherever I go, whatever rally I

speak at, I see a sea of faces and I say this: “Can you remember a time when

workers are under more pressure to work harder and faster for less?” There is

a combination of things there that are taking place. Every time I go somewhere

people look at me and they say, “Yes, that’s what my job is like”. So I think this

question of the intensity of work today has moved massively away from working

people. When I think of all of this, the very basis of the British economy at the

moment is probably insecure work, insecurity of people and growing inequality.

That is the direction of travel that we are going in. If I then play into that what is

going to happen in the future world of work, the gig economy as it takes a

greater and greater grip, artificial intelligence, I see two futures for workers in

this country. One is where we allow the likes of Amazon, Apple, Microsoft,

Google, all of these massive internet companies, to gain in power and to

dictate what the world of work looks like and I believe that what that will be is

that everybody will be fighting for the scraps of insecure work.

That is one future.

The other future is whether we decide that we are going to collectively do

something about it and I use the word “collectively” in the spirit of trade

unionism and solidarity, because I have come to a conclusion that there are

some great trade unionists in this country, there are some great trade unions in

this country still fighting as hard as they ever had, but we have not quite

worked out how to do it together to challenge the balance of forces that exist

and the political forces and the economic forces that stand in our way. So this

has got us thinking. A key question for all of us really is what are we going to

do about the situation that we are facing, that is the real fundamental question.

The CWU put forward motions to the TUC, we have done a similar thing at the

Labour Party Conference, because our ambition is to make the world of work

the no.1 political issue, because I think if we can make that the no.1 political

issue, we will bring about fundamental change in this country.

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