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Union chief “desperately worried” about country

Brendan Barber will address the TUC Congress in Brighton today, saying the Olympics moved the country into “gold standard,” but austerity is not working and that he is desperately worried about the country we are becoming.

As Mr Barber hands over the leadership baton to Frances O’Grady, TUC figures show membership of the union has fallen to below 6 million, for the first time since the 1940s.

Mr Barber will say: “It’s right to celebrate the Olympics, but it’s even more important to learn from them. For the central lessons of this summer – that private isn’t always best and the market doesn’t always deliver – surely need to shape future policy.”

There was also talk of the green economy, on which Mr Barber said investment and planning was needed in an “Olympic-style” national crusade.

A report published this weekend by the union suggests that workers are missing out on their share of economic output.

‘The Great Wages Grab’ says the average earner misses £7,000 a year, as wages have not grown in line with economic growth, and the gap between the top had increased.

Mr Barber will tell the Congress: “don’t believe a word this Chancellor says,” as he attacks plans to scrap employment rights and will note “the economy is on its knees.”

The Union chief will add: “Our level of youth unemployment is a national scandal and the government’s response has been pathetically, shamefully and woefully inadequate.

“When I addressed you in Liverpool in 2009, I warned that the economic crisis could fuel social disorder. Two summers later, we experienced the worst rioting in a generation.”

Mr Barber will finish by saying: “The victims of a government that thinks it can buck the central lesson of economic history. That austerity simply begets more austerity.

“Of the 173 austerity packages carried out around the world since 1973, the IMF concluded that all led to recession not growth.

“But when you’re driven by ideology, like so many in power today, the facts don’t matter. To anybody who has lived in the economic real world, the pitfalls are obvious.

“When wages don’t rise and jobs are made insecure, workers won’t spend. When workers won’t spend, confidence goes.”

Frances O’Grady will succeed Mr Barber at the end of the year as the first woman to become general secretary of the Union in its 144 year history.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .