With perhaps just months to go before a general election, Keir Starmer’s message to union leaders gathered for dinner in Liverpool on Monday evening was simple – as one official present put it: “eyes on the prize”. The Labour leader gave a laid-back after-dinner speech to the assembled general secretaries, leavened with football gags – and received a standing ovation. “We want him to be the next prime minister, of course we were going to stand for him,” said another dinner guest. At what is likely to be the final gathering of the TUC before the UK goes to the polls, most delegates were sufficiently enthused by the prospect of chucking the Tories out of office, to dial down their doubts about Starmer. The majority of Labour-affiliated unions – Unison and GMB among them – fully back a package of workers’ rights policies agreed at the party’s recent National Policy Forum – believing it to be genuinely transformative. It includes the right for unions to organise in any workplace; a ban on zero-hours contracts; and the repeal of anti-strike laws.
Angela Rayner, Starmer’s deputy and the star turn in Liverpool, gave what she said was a “cast-iron guarantee” that the package would be tabled within Labour’s first 100 days. Just one Labour-affiliated union refused to join the love-in in Liverpool, however: Unite, which has shifted from being intimately entwined with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership under Len McCluskey, to vehement critic under his successor, Sharon Graham. Graham has accused Labour of rowing back on vital aspects of the workers’ rights package – though other union leaders pointed out that she did not attend the negotiations in Nottingham in person. “If there has been any watering down, it’s about 1% of the content, and we would be the first people on any government’s backs if they hadn’t consulted fully about changes anyway,” said one general secretary. Gary Smith, the GMB general secretary, called the policies “an exciting package from a government in waiting”. Although Graham avoided the dinner with Starmer, several of her top lieutenants were there, showing that relations with the party have not completely crumbled. The show of unity among the other Labour-affiliated unions came despite concerns about what some see as an excess of caution from the party leadership – including the refusal to countenance a wealth tax, or to reverse the two-child limit on benefits. Some would also like to see a commitment to a £15 minimum wage, and to more spending on public services – and plan to lobby Labour privately on these and other issues. Christina McAnea, general secretary of public sector union Unison, said: “I would like Labour to give much firmer spending commitments to protect public services. That would be a big deal to us. But I also understand to a point why they won’t do that. They’ll be seen as the tax and spend party of old. But nearer the election, they are going to have to come forward with some proposals so people know what the choices are.” Several details of the workers’ rights package are also yet to be worked out, with debate about what banning “exploitative” zero-hours contracts means in practice, and how the new “fair pay agreement” promised for social care, and potentially other sectors, will work. Nevertheless, the overall mood in Liverpool was one of trade unionists holding their breath and crossing their fingers for a Starmer-led Labour government, that they hoped would listen to workers after years of austerity. Many vividly remember Ed Miliband’s poll lead in 2015 before David Cameron went on to win a majority, and fret about taking any public steps that could jeopardise a Starmer victory. Unite’s behaviour, therefore, irritated some other trade unions, who see it as striking a deliberately provocative pose. “What do they have to do, sign it in blood?” one source said, of the workers’ rights policies. The TUC, the organising body for trade unions, is not affiliated to Labour, but its general secretary, Paul Nowak, put significant emphasis in his Monday speech on urging people to “vote for working people, vote for chance, vote for the party we named for our movement: vote Labour”. He told the Guardian: “I would hope that Labour would see the value of a union voice at every level – in the workplace, at sectoral level, but also in the big strategic decisions that shape our economy.” McAnea expressed support for Rayner’s “really unequivocal commitment about delivering the fair deal for workers and that’s not just important for unions but for the country”. She said: “The pendulum has swung too far in favour of employers and it’s time to have a bit more justice in the system. Actually, good employers would welcome that.” Mike Clancy, general secretary of Prospect, a non-affiliated civil service union, said the workers’ rights package announced by Rayner was a good start and that further areas for improvement in future could be policies to encourage more union membership in the private sector, including digital organising, and reform of the employment tribunal system. One senior Labour source accused Unite of “petty” politics, in vocally criticising the workers’ rights package when it delivers so much of what the movement has been asking for. Unite is not completely isolated in its criticisms of Labour, however. Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the non-affiliated PCS union, said: “We’re all desperate to get them gone and have a Labour government, but I think Labour have to have a vision and at the moment their priorities are all wrong. “If your example to Britain is: ‘we’re making tough choices, and the the tough choice is no wealth tax, no increase in the burden on those who afford it most, our tough choice is to keep a two-child policy in benefits,’ your choices are totally wrong.” While outspoken dissent from most unions appears unlikely as a potentially decisive polling day looms after 13 years of Tory rule, it was clear in Liverpool that Starmer would continue to come under pressure over tax and spend. Nowak has repeatedly advocated a wealth tax, despite the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, appearing to rule it out – and published polling this week showing that the idea has public support even among Tory voters. “I think it’s time to be bolder, and our job as a trade union movement is to demonstrate that these ideas will be popular at the next election,” he said.