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Morning Star fringe meet hands Labour a left agenda

Ed Miliband called on to give 'rights to organise and bargain' back to trade unions

Labour leader Ed Miliband was given a clear agenda on trade union and employment rights in a packed Morning Star fringe meeting yesterday at the STUC’s Dundee congress.

The meeting, jointly organised by the People’s Assembly and the Institute for Employment Rights, heard left-wing Queen’s Counsel Keith Ewing call on Labour to “give us back real rights to organise and to bargain and to strike.”

Mr Ewing said the Grangemouth oil refinery dispute had raised three simple issues for the Labour leader.

“Why in the 21st century are employers free with impunity to victimise shop stewards?” he asked.

“And why can employers take a collective agreement and rip it up or treat contracts of employment as if they were used toilet paper?”

Secondary action in strikes “must be regarded as part of trade union activity protected by the convention of human rights — and should be formally recognised in our law,” Mr Ewing said.

“We need to hear from Ed Miliband and Labour what they’re going to do.”

General union Unite executive member Agnes Tolmie slammed neoliberal injustices like the firesale of Royal Mail, which “put profit in the pockets of friends of the Tory cabinet.”

Raising her copy of the Morning Star, she added: “Our job is to restore our collective voice — we must organise, organise and organise!”

Morning Star editor Richard Bagley said: “As the paper of the movement our job is to put forward a different vision — to campaign for trade union freedom and the socialist politics of the People’s Assembly.”

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