Diane Abbott

Diane's statement to union members

"I have been a member of the Labour Party for over thirty years.

During this time, I have served the party at every level: from a ward organiser and a grassroots activist to MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington for the past 23 years.

I have always been active in trade unions and have frontline experience. In 1986, I served as the ACTT's (film technicians union) full-time Equality Officer. This was a great way to cut your teeth as a politician, as we soon learnt what political fights were all about.

In 1982-1986 I served on Westminster City councillor as one of London's first female black councillors. I was then an elected constituency representative on the National Executive of the Labour Party from 1994- 1997. Because I have devoted more than half my life to the Labour Party, I feel strongly about reviving party democracy and rebuilding the party to its former glory.

I was elected to Parliament as the member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1987 as Britain's first black woman MP. In Parliament, I have never been afraid to stand up for the views of ordinary Labour party members. In 2003, I was one of a small group of Labour MPs to vote against the Iraq war. Equality and human rights has always been at the heart of my politics. I believe that, if Labour is to flourish, it is vital to rediscover our sense of moral purpose.

I believe that the coming leadership contest has the potential to energise the party and engage the public. I look forward to debating ideas with people in every part of our movement and helping to build the Labour Party of the future."

 

What do you see as the role of trade unions in the 21st century?

"In one way the role of trade unions in the 21st century is the same as it was in the 19th century – to represent workers and to persue their interests. Historically by bringing workers together, the trade union movement was able to empower them in relation to management. But it is also the case that the world has moved on since the setting up of our trade unions. The number of people actually organised in the unions has dropped. In the private sector, only fifteen percent of workers are in a union. There is a rising generation of young people who have no tradition of trade unionism in their family or in the community, who only realise the point of trade unionism when they are in a crisis at work.

So the challenge for trade unions in the 21st century is how do you reach out to those people who do not see the point of the trade union movement, and do not come from communities with a history of trade union activity?

First of all there is a lot that government can do to help and the next Labour leader must commit to doing away with a legal situation where courts can halt strikes on a technicality about the trade union’s ballot.

Also, for too long there have not been any role models in the trade union movement – we need more women and ethnic minority officers and more diversity at the top.

We must prove to potential members what we have to offer them and show that the British trade union movement wants a leadership that looks like Britain.

It is not a coincidence that with the decline in organised trade unionism there has been an increase in inequality. That is why the role of trade unions is as vital as ever."

 

How would you practically implement a living wage? For example, would you support legislation to ensure that companies can only get government and local government contracts if they pay a living wage?

"Ensuring we have a living wage is extremely important. Working hard should mean being able to provide for your family and lead a decent standard of living – not living on the breadline.

Implementing a living wage doesn't only benefit the employees. It improves staff loyalty and boosts morale, and therefore productivity. It also reduces training and recruitment costs, which is overall better value for money for employers.

I would support introducing legislation to ensure that government tenders are not able to be taken up by contractors who are not prepared to pay a living wage to their staff.

As a party, we must lead by example and those who are not willing to offer a decent wage for a decent day’s work, should not benefit from government contracts.

My father worked as a sheet metal worker. He was able to provide for my mother and buy the odd treat for me and my brother. This is what working should be about; providing for your family and been proud of what you earn.

Keeping people’s wages below the breadline has a knock-on effect on not only on the family unit, but the wider community in terms of anti-social behaviour and crime. This in turn places further burden on services like the police. Insisting on a living wage would alleviate this.

The gap between rich and poor in the UK is far too wide. As leader of the Labour Party, this is something I would want to tackle. My government has done much to address this over last 13 years and in particular, work to help reduce child poverty. We have made good progress but more needs to be done.

Implementing a living wage for all government contractors would be a step in the right direction to addressing this inequality."

 

What should be the future of public sector pensions? Would a future Labour Government led by you stand by theagreement reached between the TUC and the Labour Government in April of this year and commit to provide 'good quality, index-linked, sustainable, defined benefit pensions' or public sector workers?

"A large number of my constituents work in the public sector The idea that they should have to contribute more to their pensions because of a deficit caused by bankers is ludicrous.

We should not be hitting as many people as we can with these cuts, which is what the coalition seems to be doing. Public sector workers traditionally earn lower wages than those in the private sector and often good quality pension schemes are their ‘bonuses’.

The coalition cuts are hitting ordinary people the hardest. When David Cameron says our way of life must change, he means our way of life not his. It is unfair that we should be taking money from the pockets of the poorest people to appease private sector workers in the City.

The actual cost of public sector pensions to taxpayers will not rise, as the coalition government is suggesting. Several trade unions have backed this and suggested the government needs to look long term rather than drastic cuts in the short term.

As leader of the Labour Party, I would stick by our promise to provide sustainable public sector pensions. In fact, I would reconsider the cuts altogether. Instead I would look at increasing tax for high earners as a way of evening out the playing field.

Labour lost out at the polls because people thought we had stopped listening to them. These cuts suggest the coalition might also be in danger of losing touch with the ordinary man and woman. This is a lesson they may have to learn the hard way, as Labour had to."

 

If elected as the Labour leader, would you support a three-line whip for the PLP against the Coalition government's Bill to privatise, and break up, Royal Mail?

"Yes I would. I have long made it clear that I do not support privatising the Royal Mail. In my opinion if a service is important, it is too important to be privatised.

We need to be wary about privatising and breaking up an institution that is one of Britain's greatest public services.

Coalition ministers have this idea that Royal Mail can be the new John Lewis, where employees are 'partners', owning shares and receiving annual dividends based on its profits. But they forget that the history behind the two companies is very different.

During last year's post strike, Royal Mail recruited 30,000 temporary workers to counter the effect of the strike.

Also, if the employees are to ‘own’ the business and receive profits, surely they would also be forced to bear the burden should profits fall? Would employees want to take on this risk?

An injection of private cash is urgently needed the coalition says. But would a private company also be prepared to address the black hole in the pension scheme or would they force employees to pay up themselves? What would be the government’s position should we have a revolt on our hands?

I know the Hooper report said change was needed. But we need to be wary of handing over institutions to private companies without proper consideration."

 

Labour stands for equality and fairness at work and in the wider community. How do we tackle the gender pay gap, discrimination and low pay in the current economic climate?

"Labour has a fantastic record of supporting people at work and I am proud to have been able to vote for some of the most progressive and radical policies of the century – The Minimum Wage Act and legislation to end discrimination in the workplace form a very proud part of our history. But Legislation isn’t the panacea and we have so much more to do to equalise pay between men and women and make sure that elements of our workforce, such as temporary and agency workers are not put at risk of exploitation.

On the issue of the Gender Pay Gap which is something that we, as a society, should be ashamed of, something radical must be put in place. When women accountants are earning up to two thirds less than their male counterparts, for example, we have to make companies and business more transparent to expose and tackle inequalities in pay between the sexes.

I’m pleased that the UK Government finally signed up to the Temporary and Agency Workers directive, albeit after some needed lobbying from Trade Unions, but I wait to see how the current Government puts the Directive into practice. My worry is that this Government led by a coalition who have shown their willingness to cosy up to sections of the business community to the detriment of the most vulnerable, will bow to pressure from some groups and water down the Directive. We must resist this vehemently."

 

The unfair treatment of agency workers causes many problems, not just for the agency workers themselves, but also for their directly employed colleagues. How should the Agency Workers Directive be implemented and enforced in order to put a stop to the exploitation of agency workers and the undercutting of permanent staff, and what other measures should be put in place? Why do you think progress was not made to sign up to and implement the Agency Workers Directive sooner under Labour, given supporting it was part of the Warwick Agreement of 2004?

"I think it was major error that the Labour government did not sign up to the Agency Workers Directive sooner.

It would have left another marvellous legacy for Labour had we begun implementing the directive in 2004.

But we did manage to get the directive through Parliament ahead of the last election, thanks to Unions who have lobbied for the support of the directive for a long time. It is down to them that we have finally been able to get it passed into law.

I voted in favour of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which will secure equal pay, holiday and terms for working time between vulnerable agency workers and their permanent staff counterparts after 12 weeks in the job. This will be implemented in the UK at the latest by December 2011.

However, now we are in opposition, we need to ensure the directive goes ahead as we intended.

The Tories vigorously opposed the directive from the start so we must ensure that they implement the directive as we intended. The worrying response from Ed Davey to a question from Lisa Nandy should make us raise our political antennae and be aware that this coalition could be willing to water down the proposals.

Agency workers are particularly at risk during recession and this directive is needed protect their interests. Currently they lack almost all of the rights guaranteed for normal workers from the Employment Rights Act 1996, which is just wrong.

These new regulations will see improvements for millions of workers across the UK.

For the Coalition to go back on the directive would be nothing short of a scandal.

I for one will do my best to make sure this does not happen."

 

Britain has the most restrictive industrial laws in the western world, which stop unions from best representing their members. What one restriction do you think most urgently needs lifting and why?

"As a former trade union official, I know too well the struggle that some unions face in representing their members effectively. I worked as full-time Equality Officer in 1986 for ACTT (film technicians union) and I believe that post the industrial era, governments of whatever colour, have made it more difficult for trade unions to be the force for good they so often are. We often forget that trade unions do more than negotiate better pay deals - they are leaders in equality and diversity, experts in healthy and safe working environments and champions of international relations.

I support John McDonnell's Trade Union Freedom Bill and I have signed the Early Day Motion to demonstrate my support. I think we have to free up some of the legislation around industrial action which paints workers as criminals. I think we also have to simplify the technocratic rules and regulations around disputes.

But the most importantly, I want to make it unlawful to strike down an otherwise lawful ballot because of unintentional technical breaches of the regulations which would not have altered the outcome of the ballot. I would also change the law to stop employers taking vexatious injunctions.

The right to strike is a fundamental right and in Britain we have stifled this right for too long. As Labour leader, I would make sure this right is reinstated."

 

The Labour Party has always prided itself on being the Party of equality and diversity. How will you ensure that Labour’s shadow cabinet and the PLP are representative of women and men? What one thing would you do to make sure that Labour is better connected with and representative of ordinary trade union members?

As Britain’s first black female MP, it is no surprise to me that twenty three years later, I am the first black person to contend the leadership of a political party.

However, I am proud to be running to lead the party that has done more than any other to promote equality and diversity.

I am backed by BAME Labour in my bid to become leader, and with their help, I hope to be able to double the membership of black and ethnic minority Labour Party members in the course of this campaign.

Doing this would change the face of the party forever and make sure our politicians not only look like our voters, but have their interests at heart.

I am in favour of 50/50 ratio for the shadow cabinet.

I was a leading campaigner for all women’s shortlists in the 1980’s when it was not a popular idea. I was also equalities advisor to the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. Because we took positive action on women’s representation, we saw the highest ever number of women MPs’ elected in 1997. The other political parties are still scrambling to keep up, years down the line.

As for the PLP, it is essential that we make similar changes as we would in shadow cabinet.

The one thing that would ensure Labour is better connected with ordinary trade union members is to pick me as your leader.

I have worked as a trade union official and have never been part of the Westminster elite that made decisions without consulting members.

Part of my promise as Labour leader is to listen and act in the interests of members and voters, not of party insiders.