Nick Dearden
Workers' strength comes through united action. It's a pretty simple rule of history. When the most marginalised and exploited workers stand up for themselves, better off workers need to stand with them. It was the struggles of the match girls, the Irish dockers and the Jewish sweatshop workers of late 19th-century London that transformed British trade unionism and made it a mass force for social change.
A strong workers' movement would never accept the rights of a minority being removed. Yet that is exactly what the end of EU free movement rules in Britain would mean. European migrant workers would have fewer rights in Britain and would, therefore, be less able to defend their pay and conditions. That explains the stark warning contained in a report released today by Another Europe is Possible: the big winners of a post-Brexit 'controlled migration' system will not be British workers, but unscrupulous employers.
'Brexit and immigration: prioritising the rights of all workers', by Luke Cooper and Zoe Gardner, argues that a managed migration system - however 'generous' – would be worse for European and British workers than the status quo. That's because free movement gives rights to workers - to live, work and study. It's not an unlimited right, contrary to popular belief, but it does mean that European citizens have the right to join with their British colleagues and fight for better pay and conditions. That's how things improve.
But any move away from this free movement means "managed migration" under which migrant workers are judged primarily by their economic value. That means employers bringing workers into the country on strict terms. More power is in the hands of the employer, who decides whether an employee can stay in the country or not. That makes organising for rights and protections so scary that it's unlikely to happen.
'Brexit and immigration' examines a number of managed migration schemes - from the relatively benign 'guest worker' scheme in Germany to the truly horrific example of the World Cup workers in Qatar. They all have one thing in common - the fewer rights migrant workers have, the more they will be exploited.
In the short term, and under the influence of a deeply xenophobic media - which would have us believe the UK is 'overrun' with migrants - some workers today see a direct benefit to themselves in limiting migration. It is precisely the same mindset which led some trade unions, a century ago, to oppose women's entry into the workforce in Britain on the grounds that it was undermining men's wages.
Research suggests that women's entry into the workforce did have some negative short-term effect on wages. In all likelihood, it had a much bigger effect than recent migration, which has actually helped raise wages, outside of some specific economic sectors and areas of the country. But long term, the failure to stand with women workers was both unethical and left workers as a whole weaker, leaving women more exploited - just what big business wanted.
None of this means that things are fine for British workers. Britain has a very deregulated 'labour market', with dreadful stories emerging regularly of big business employing workers on disgraceful terms and conditions, fuelling unprecedented level of inequality in society. This has not been created by European free movement and the answer is not to further divide the workforce, but to fight for a better deal - just as the migrant and women workers did 150 years ago.
That better deal – 'free movement plus' – could include new rules to enhance collective bargaining, especially in low-skill sectors, a boost to the minimum wages, and making sure employers really can't use foreign workers to undercut wages by increasing penalties. It could also include investment strategies which ensure money follows migrants to parts of the country suffering long-term deprivation.
This article has been excerpted from: 'Is Brexit really going to help British workers?'
Courtesy: Aljazeera.com