OpinionTrade unions

With a Brexit deal that puts workers’ rights at risk, we need unions more
than ever

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   workers voted to remain, as did a majority of those whom pollsters
   classify as working class under the age of 35 – but that real wages had
   fallen or stagnated for so long fuelled the disillusionment that Brexit
   fed on. When rightwing Brexiteers argued that migrants were
   undercutting wages, they were redirecting blame away from the weakening
   of unions and the so-called “flexible labour market” – but they had a
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   many for a reason.

   How perverse, then, that the Brexit deal may only accelerate the
   justified grievances that helped drive the referendum result in the
   first place. According to new research by the Institute for Public
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   excuse for businesses to attack workers’ terms and conditions – so they
   can unfairly extract more value out of their employees – and for the
   Conservatives to roll back the state, aided by a Brexit deal that
   permits the diluting of hard-won rights and protections. You would hope
   that Labour – the clue being in the name – would offer leadership here,
   too. But its decision to order its MPs to vote for the Brexit trade
   deal in its entirety means it will be hard to take its objections
   seriously. The argument here, of course, is that Labour is voting to
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   legitimate, but it was the same political calculation made by Jeremy
   Corbyn during his leadership, leading to his vilification as a
   Brexiteer by those who now cheer on or say nothing about Labour voting
   for the hardest possible Brexit deal.

   With the opposition party missing in action, it falls to the trade
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