At the start of the summer I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak at Young Labour’s annual conference. I began by asking those gathered if they were a member of a union: not everybody put their hand up. It’s not so long ago that you wouldn’t even have asked a Labour party audience if you were in a union or not. You wouldn’t be in the party if you weren’t a union member.
In some ways it shows that unions can’t assume people will join them. In other ways it shows that at first people can be more attracted to the values of the Labour party than to the values of trade unions – even though I would argue, certainly from Community’s perspective, that they are the same.
Trade unions are the daily embodiment of what we’ve all signed up to as Labour party members: ‘That by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more together than we achieve alone.’
The idea of Community came about in the 1990s. The industries and communities we represent had the hearts ripped out of them by Thatcher’s deindustrialisation policies. Our industries had experienced a similar level of industrial decline and had been hit by the same wave of globalisation. We asked ourselves what we could do as a union. We couldn’t abandon our members when they needed us most.
That’s where the idea of becoming a union for communities, not just workplaces, developed. So when a steelworks was threatened with closure, we fought for the best outcome but we also prepared for the worst. We campaigned for jobs and saved many. But if a works closed we supported our members to gain new skills and find new employment. And when they found new work they stayed with their union. We are still campaigning for our industries today.
Through all this change, one thing has remained constant for Community and its predecessor unions – that is that we are Labour. Our predecessor unions were there when our party was formed. We remain a union that positively and actively supports the party. We want to campaign to win for Labour in our communities and we recognise that means local Labour parties and trade unions working closely together. We are a union that campaigns for things not just against them. This is what the trade union link means to us.
Too many Labour party members are not in trade unions. I’m sure there are many different reasons why party members aren’t union members. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding about our shared values. Maybe it’s that people don’t think they need a union any more. Well, we want more party members to join a union. We want to strengthen the relationship between unions and CLPs. Too often there’s a ‘them and us’ scenario. The unions versus party members. In fact we should be united in one cause, to win power and deliver social justice.
That’s why Community’s created its Labour Campaign Network. It’s open to any Labour party members who aren’t in a union. The key thing about it is that the majority of the contribution rate that LCN members pay goes to organising and campaigning to win for Labour. We want to support Labour party members in their communities.
Labour may be ahead in the polls – but it’s only through genuine engagement on issues that matter to people’s lives that we will truly be on the road back to power. This needs to happen everywhere, which is why Progress’ Third Place First campaign is important. For it’s only in power that we can truly make a difference to our communities. That is what the union link is there to deliver.
—————————————————————————————
Joe Mann is a candidate in the members’ section in the Progress strategy board elections 2012. You can find out more about all the candidates at the dedicated Progress strategy board election microsite