Harriet speaks to TUC Conference

Extracts from speech given by Harriet Harman to TUC Conference, Liverpool, Monday 14 September 2009

Congress is always an occasion.

And, this year it’s even more important.

We are all in fight-back mode

• We’re fighting our way out of recession.
• We’re fighting back to protect jobs  
• We’re fighting back against the Tory threat to public services.
• And we’re fighting back against the  arrogance of the Tories who say that the election is in the bag for them.  It is not.

Last week, the Prime Minister hosted a meeting with Brendan and some General Secretaries.  

We agreed on so many things:

• We agree that it’s vital that we don’t pull the plug on public investment and knock the economy off course
• We agree that we have to put apprenticeships and help for young people at the top of our agenda.
• We agree that we must fight for our manufacturing industry and for new green jobs.
  

The meeting was at Chequers and it was really productive.

Your General Secretaries spoke strongly of your members’ concerns

• about childcare,
• about the need for family flexibility at work.

The importance of Congress is that you represent 7 million trade unionists at work

• men and women
• in every part of the economy
• in the public and the private sector
• in every region of England, in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

And the vocation of representation is what binds us here in the room tonight. We represent people.

We are their voice.  We represent their need and their demand for change. You speak up for people at work who, without you would have no voice, would be powerless.  

We can pass all the laws we like – but it also needs inspiring people.  People like you, Sheila Bearcroft, this year’s president of the TUC who day in day out, fight for your members in your workplaces.

This country owes a great deal to the work of trade unions who always were, and always must be, the strong friend who stands beside people at work.

It’s the work of shop stewards, but also – as we saw today at Congress – the work of

• learning reps
• health and safety reps
• and trade union equality reps.

And I want to pay tribute to the work that Unite, Unison and others are doing to demonstrate the importance of equality reps and we are committed to strengthening their role

We, in the Labour government stand up for working people and the country as a whole. Especially those who need the power of government to ensure that they have opportunity and dignity in their life, for themselves and for their families.

To be a representative is a great privilege and a great responsibility.

And 100 years on from the last time the TUC was in this magnificent city of Liverpool, we can and should feel proud of the huge advances  which the trade union movement and Labour governments, together, have brought about.  

We can be confident about what we’ve achieved.  But we should never be complacent.

Though we know Britain is a better, fairer, country than it was before we came into government - we know that the problems are not solved. The job is not yet done. That is why the country must have a further term of Labour in government.

Our resolve is needed now to bring the economy out of the global downturn - triggered by bankers who enriched themselves as they brought the world to the brink of bankruptcy.  We all know that there can be no going back to business as usual.

Under Gordon’s leadership we’ve taken tough, bold and decisive action.

It was Gordon who charted the way forward  - not only for this country but for the world.

And you know, the truth is that without Gordon’s leadership we could have faced not just a recession – from which we are beginning to recovery - but a global depression - which would have been devastating.

And we have worked in partnership with you on this.

You, in the trade unions, pressed us to bring in the car scrappage scheme –  which has made a huge difference so that people get rid of their old, polluting cars, causing a surge in new car sales, and safeguarding thousands of vital manufacturing jobs.  You have demanded that we back the Vauxhall workers here in Britain. And that is what we will do.

You, in the trade unions pressed us to do more on affordable housing and our Housing Pledge will build up to 20,000 affordable homes, most of which will be council homes, and this will maintain 30,000 vital construction jobs.

You’ve demanded that we back up families where both mother and father go out to work and care for their children and often, now care for older relatives too. And that’s why we’ve doubled maternity pay, extended it from 6 to 9 months.  And we are going to change the law to allow the family to choose when the baby is 6 months old for either the mother or the father to take those further months off.  And we remain committed to our goal to extending maternity pay to a year.  

And, with you, we fight the BNP.   Their divisive and poisonous racism has no place in our communities or it our workplaces.

And you’ve pressed us to bring in a strong Equality Bill because fairness and equality is not only a human right – it is the basis for a strong economy which draws on the talents of all.
Our Equality bill will help make Britain a stronger and fairer society and its first clause sets out a new legal duty on all public bodies to tackle the gap between rich and poor.  Every one of us knows that although great progress has been made, there is still injustice and unfairness.
By the age of six, the bright child from a poor home is overtaken in school by the less able child from an affluent home.
In this day and age – who really feels that is acceptable?

We certainly don’t – but the Tories do.

• They opposed every single policy which has helped us get out of recession and protect those who would have been hardest hit.
• they are foaming at the mouth at the prospect of cutting vital public services and
• they oppose our new 50% tax rate for income over £150,000 and pledge instead to cut inheritance tax for the wealthiest.

Gone is the faltering attempt to move towards a more progressive position. They are back to their true nature.
 
They’re beginning to set out their stall for the General Election – and it’s going to be a millionaires’ manifesto.

Trade unions founded the Labour Party because you stand up for those without a voice;

Together we will fight for those we represent.

We will fight for the future that we all want to see.  

We’ll fight for a future which is prosperous and fair.

And most importantly – we’ll fight to win.