Tories warn of ‘return to union chaos of Nineteen Seventies’ after RMT boss’s rant
Tories have warned of a ‘return to union chaos of the 1970s’ after a trade union baron vowed to seize control of the economy now that their Labour ‘friends’ are in power.
Militant RMT boss Mick Lynch sparked alarm by insisting the ‘prize’ on offer was ‘the complete organisation of the UK economy by trade unions’.
The hard-Left rant came as Keir Starmer struggled to fend off pressure for more red tape on businesses at Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
Unions are also trying to force an embarrassing vote on reversing plans to axe winter fuel payments for 10million pensioners.
And Chancellor Rachel Reeves was left red-faced after the Royal College of Nursing announced during her keynote speech that it was rejecting the Government’s 5.5 per cent pay hike offer.
Shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake told MailOnline: ‘Labour and the Unions have completely misread the mood of the British public.
‘Both in terms of the general election vote share and the latest opinion polls this is the least popular majority government in modern history.
‘If they take that as a mandate to take us back to the Union-led chaos of the 1970s they will wreck the economy and any chance they have of being re-elected for a generation.’
RMT boss Mick Lynch (pictured in July in Durham) has said that union chiefs are looking to seize control of the UK economy
Unions have used the Labour conference to flex their muscles, including forcing a vote on Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured at Labour conference) plans to axe winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners
Mr Lynch (pictured in London) used his speech at the conference to call for an expansion of union powers to allow then to shut down industries should their demands not be met
Speaking at a conference fringe event, Mr Lynch called for a sweeping expansion of union powers which would make it easier to shut down industries if their demands are not met.
Although the RMT is not formally affiliated to Labour, Mr Lynch praised Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Transport Secretary Louise Haigh as ‘leading individuals’ who must be ‘supported by the movement’.
The rail baron’s no-nonsense words came during a discussion of Labour’s New Deal for Working People, which business leaders fear will tie them up in costly red tape and could cost them thousands of pounds.
Under the plans, workers could get the right to ‘switch off’ and not be contacted outside of their normal hours. Zero-hours contracts could also be banned and staff would be given access to sick pay and other benefits from day one.
But Mr Lynch said union barons must push further once the New Deal, set to be part of legislation unveiled by the Government in the coming months, is secured.
Calling for a return to 1970s levels of influence, he said: ‘The problem at the moment is that the unions are not in every sector, effectively.
‘We’re not in every workplace. We’re not able to influence non-union recognised workplaces, whereas up to the 1970s and 80s, we were.
‘So if you went on a job as a construction worker that wasn’t organised, you tended to get the union agreement anyway, because it was enforceable by those workers.’
He added: ‘And that’s the prize we’ve got to keep our eyes on – that union influence is universal across the United Kingdom, completely universal.
‘The complete organisation of the UK economy by trade unions – that’s our aim.’
The RMT chief (pictured in Westminster in August) said that union bosses should push for further reforms once Labour’s New Deal is secured
The Royal College of Nursing overshadowed the Chancellor’s speech by announcing it was rejecting the Government’s 5.5 per cent pay hike offer (pictured: A nurse on a picket line in February)
He boasted that his union has gone on strike ‘every month’ since 1981, when the then Tory government under Margaret Thatcher watered down union powers to stop them holding the country to ransom.
Suggesting that a fresh wave of crippling strikes could be unleashed if the Government tries to water down the New Deal, which some union bosses fear may happen under pressure from business, Mr Lynch added: ‘We never step back from organising workers and we won’t do so under a Labour Government, no matter how diluted this Act may become.’
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘At the end of the day, the unions are Labour’s paymasters.
‘They will end up capitulating again and again as they always have done.
‘What we now know is that Keir Starmer’s government is going to look a lot more like Harold Wilson’s than Tony Blair’s. Wilson was a prisoner to the unions.’
Labour has been accused of caving in too easily to its union ‘paymasters’ over a string of inflation-busting pay offers to public sector workers while taking away the winter fuel payment for pensioners.
Ministers have earmarked more than £10 billion for pay hikes within just a few months of its administration.
Mr Lynch also praised Deputy PM Angela Rayner (pictured at Labour conference) as a ‘leading individual’ who must be ‘supported by the union movement’ to get her agenda through
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith (pictured in July) said that Labour would end up ‘capitulating’ to its union paymasters
Fran Heathcote, boss of the PCS union, said it would ‘keep up the pressure’ on the Government to deliver union demands, while Jo Grady, head of the University and College Union, vowed to get anti-strike laws ‘rolled back’.
Steve Gillian, boss of the Prison Officers’ Association union, vowed to ‘hold this government to account’ to secure union demands.
Business minister Justin Madders, who was also on the panel at the conference fringe meeting, reassured the union bosses that ministers were ‘on course’ to deliver the New Deal within the first 100 days of a Labour government.
