TUC leader Paul Nowak will call for workers to elect a Labour government as he addresses the union federation’s Midlands conference today.

TUC analysis shows that 500,000 workers across the Midlands — one in eight — is “trapped” in insecure work.

With an election likely this year, workers’ rights are “on the ballot paper,” the TUC says.

“Whether it’s banning zero-hours contracts, banning fire and rehire or delivering ‘day one’ employment rights, Labour’s New Deal for working people will be the biggest expansion of workers’ rights and in a generation,” Mr Nowak plans to say.
 
“It would be a gamechanger for millions of people, not least the one in eight workers in the Midlands who are trapped in insecure work.

“That New Deal will be good workers, good for employers and good for the economy.

“And it has to be accompanied by a broader package of change.

“An economy that rewards work rather than wealth. Where we use a smart industrial strategy to deliver good green jobs and safeguard sectors like train manufacturing so that good, unionised companies like Alstom aren’t at risk from government inactivity.”

The TUC general secretary will savage the Tories’ record of attacking workers’ rights.

“They have reintroduced tribunal fees that the Supreme Court ruled were unlawful.

“They are allowing employers to use agency workers to bust strikes — again, previously defeated in the courts.

“And they are imposing minimum service levels that will remove the right to strike from one in five workers.”