TRADE unionists at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival have vowed to fight any attempt by the new Labour government to water down its new deal for working people.
Legislation outlined in the King’s speech under the employment Bill included promises to repeal anti-union laws, introduce a “genuine” living wage and end fire and rehire within Labour’s first 100 days of office.
RMT president Alex Gordon, who praised plans to renationalise railways, said none of it would have been possible without the “relentless” work by trade unions.
Outsourcing is at the heart of inequality. Only collective unity in the trade union movement can topple the Establishment’s obsession with it, says SAM GURNEY
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today
As the labour movement meets to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, says it’s an appropriate moment to remind the Labour government to listen to the trade unions a little more
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR



