Strategy does not go far enough

September’s TUC Congress saw unions extending a cautious welcome to Labour’s Industrial Strategy plan (see feature this issue, pages 13–15). But there was criticism too.

The RMT transport union said the plan, and the Employment Rights Bill, were “welcome first steps”, but “don’t go far enough to tackle the legacy of decades of weak business investment, offshoring, outsourcing, privatisation and austerity”.

It called for “policies that begin to restructure the economy to improve productivity and investment and bring about a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of working people”, including “an improved industrial strategy to create a new generation of publicly owned or supported industries”.

The CWU communications union said these should focus on water, mail, telecommunications, steel and energy industries.

The GMB general union highlighted the crisis in Stoke-on-Trent’s potteries and said government support for ceramic manufacturers with electricity costs must be matched with support for costs of gas.

And the ASLEF train drivers’ union was concerned that the freight and logistics section of the strategy “focused heavily on road and not the whole sector”. It expects this to be addressed in Labour’s plan for the sector and said rail freight must be part of this plan.