Joan Coombes

Workers in Britain are amongst the easiest and cheapest to make redundant, meaning that when multinational companies are taking decisions to downsize, British workers are at a disadvantage.

The recent announcement by Jabil and Ethicon that they want to close their factories in Livingston sadly illustrates what is wrong in our economy. Manufacturing has been allowed to decline. Whilst some companies and shareholders have made big profits, most workers have seen no growth in their earnings in real terms. Too many jobs are low skilled, low paid and insecure.

The creation of wealth is a collective endeavour between businesses, their workers and the government. Each contributes and there must be a fair share of the rewards. We need a new approach. A Labour government would set up a National Transformation Fund to invest in businesses throughout the UK. We would develop an industrial strategy to create new high-skill, high-wage, secure jobs.

Education must be accessible to all throughout our working lives. The Government needs to support further and adult education and the creation of far more apprenticeships.

Workers rights need to be improved. Reducing costs by reducing rights is counter productive and has no long-term benefits to society. A Labour government would increase the minimum wage to £10 per hour, ban zero-hour contracts, encourage the creation of more co-operative companies and beef up employment tribunals.

A Labour government you vote for on June 8 will change lives.