So far the tensions in the Labour party over Ed Miliband’s plan to reform the link with the trade unions have stayed below the surface at this conference. The closest it came was, unsurprisingly, when Len McCluskey took to the stage. The Unite leader made another plea for the unions to ‘set our vision of how we will build our country in government’, and told the leadership (Ed Miliband had strangely disappeared from the stage at this point) that ‘if OUR party is to have a future it must speak for ordinary workers and it must represent the voice of organised labour’.
He also made his customary attack on the Blairite ‘Them’ that he likes to talk about whenever he defends the role of trade unions, saying:
‘Zero hours in another age. The only thing that stopped it then, and the only thing that will stop it now is strong trade unions. Now I know that there are those in our party who shudder when trade unions are mentioned, fearful of the prospect of a bad headline in the Daily Mail. I say to them: you will never, ever appease the right-wing media and to try demeans you and our party.’
You might think this is fair enough, that trade unions should continue to influence Labour party policy, or indeed have an enhance role in setting policy as McCluskey hopes they will as quid pro quo for the reforms to the link. But at a fringe event this afternoon, McCluskey went a little further than just demanding a role in Labour’s vision: he appeared to threaten criminal activity. He told an event on ‘trade unions in a new economy’ that Unite could be ‘pushed outside of the law’ by introducing legislation curbing trade unions’ activities. He said:
‘If this government continues to attack us, and continues to try and reduce our rights even further, let me warn then this. If you push us further outside of the law, then be it on your own heads what the consequences are, because we’ve got no intention in Unite or in this movement of allowing laws introduced by the Bullingdon boys to restrict the legitimate and international rights we have to protect our workers… Conference, if we’re pushed outside of the law then so be it.’
There is perhaps a kinder reading of these comments, that trade unions might flout laws that stop them protecting workers in some way, rather than breaking the law through civil disobedience. But obviously, the Tories are thrilled by these comments. But they also tell us something interesting about the way the Unite leader views democracy. His Labour party didn't win in 2015, and the parties that did come into power don't have the link with the unions that he needs to get his way. So instead, he thinks the unions should just break the law to stop the 'Bullingdon boys'.
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