PM’s back to the office plan ‘puts lives at risk’
ONE of Britain’s biggest trade unions yesterday demanded an end to the ‘rush’ back to the office and called for all schools to be shut, saying workers had a right ‘not to die’.
Howard Beckett, assistant general secretary of Unite, told a rally that Boris Johnson’s call for people to return to their workplaces was putting lives at risk.
Speaking on behalf of his leader, Len McCluskey, he also called for ‘mass industrial action’ to stop Chancellor Rishi Sunak ending the furlough scheme at the end of October.
Mr Beckett spoke at a virtual rally of the hard-Left National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN), which demanded a ‘council of war’ to fight bosses and the Tories. Activists demanded the nationalisation of all companies that lay workers off and the occupation of offices if they threaten redundancies.
One accused the Government of waging ‘class genocide’ on workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
They spoke the day before today’s start of the Trades Union Congress, which is being held entirely online because of the pandemic.
Mr Beckett was introduced as speaking on behalf of Unite’s outgoing hard-Left leader, Mr McCluskey.
‘It’s time now for other unions to step forward with us and to take the type of collective industrial action that we’re talking of,’ he said.
‘This week at the TUC we do need to be very clear over our demands. And our first demand must be health and safety. This rush to get workers back to work has to be rejected when workers’ health and safety is put at risk.
‘All our members must be reminded of their rights to go to a safe workplace, their right to come home from work, their right not to die because they are carrying out work. It is written into the Human Rights Act.’
He added: ‘Comrades, we must call for schools to be shut. It isn’t right for teachers’ lives to be put at risk. The Tories don’t care about the education of the young because they know that privileged children will be educated throughout this crisis.
‘Frankly, they want the children back at work at school because they want workers back in work.
‘We know this is the truth and not to raise this as an issue risks the lives of our members.
‘Schools should be shut until such time as we have effective testing, and until such time as we have an effective cure.’
Dr Jonathan Fluxman, from the group Doctors in Unite, said: ‘The Government’s claim that the workplace is safe and is Covid secure is, I’m afraid, just more Tory lies.’
The chairman of the National Shop Stewards Network Rob Williams called for the TUC to be a ‘council of war’ against the Tories and employers. ‘Workers are fighting for our lives and livelihoods,’ he said.
‘We need workers’ control over workplaces to make sure that they are safe.
‘And, increasingly, we are fighting to stop the hurricane of redundancies and confront the bosses who use the threat of job losses to try and smash our pay, terms and conditions and pensions.
‘More than ever, the TUC needs to be a council of war, where the class lines are drawn – workers won’t pay the price for this crisis.
‘We must send a clear message of defiance to the employers and their Tory government, which in turn will give confidence to workers that the unions will fight.’
He called for a day of demonstrations and protests in ‘every town and city’ on October 24 to demand the furlough scheme be extended.
Mr Williams added: ‘The mood to fight is increasing as Covid strips bare the class inequalities in society.’
‘Government’s claim is Tory lies’