Theresa May loses no opportunity to say she wants Britain to be a country that works for everyone. The slogan will be the backdrop at next month’s Conservative party conference, too. A country that works for everyone is a very fine aim in principle. But Mrs May will struggle to make a reality of her own words without being a Tory leader who does things differently on a range of fronts. One of the things she should do differently is to re-engage with Britain’s trade unions.
It is well over 30 years since a Tory leader took a fresh approach to the unions. That is too long. Judging by the Cameron government’s approach, embodied in this year’s vindictive Trade Union Act, not much changed in Tory thinking between the 1980s and now. In some respects the same is true on the union side. But Mrs May should look beyond the militancy she condemned too quickly in the junior doctors’ dispute. Partly that’s because the gulf between her concerns and those of the unions is perhaps not as great as she assumes. But it’s also because her social reform agenda will only leave a lasting mark if she takes a bold and constructive approach to organisations like unions.
This week, the trade unions are in Brighton for their annual congress. If she can get a reliable train, Mrs May could do worse than drop in. She would not be wasting her time. The large topics that the unions are discussing include many on which the prime minister is anxious to stamp her authority – fair pay, industrial strategy, support for the steel industry, and the Brexit deal. She might even take an interest in this week’s scheduled debate about wearing high heels at work.
Fair pay is the most politically pressing question facing the British economy. Since the crisis of 2007-08, real wages in Britain have declined by more than 10%, the largest fall in any developed economy in the world except Greece. Meanwhile, as the TUC itself pointed out on Sunday, the average FTSE 100 boss now earns 123 times the average UK average full-time salary, and Britain’s highest-paid CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, earns the average annual salary in under 45 minutes. In July, launching her leadership campaign, Mrs May called the gaps “irrational, unhealthy and growing”. She will need allies to turn that around. The unions should be one of them.
Mrs May has also caused waves by talking about corporate governance and putting employees on company boards. True, too many unions have been too supine about industrial co-determination for too long; too many think about this subject solely in connection with boardroom pay, though that is undoubtedly important. But the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, is one who gets the bigger picture. She will call for a fair hearing from government for the union point of view on all aspects of industrial reform today. Mrs May should respond positively.
If she went to Brighton, Mrs May would also find a union movement whose leaders are much more focused on the practical questions facing post-Brexit Britain than the Labour opponent she sees each week at prime minister’s questions. On Monday the TUC publishes a report on the impact of Brexit on jobs, which underlines that workers in all sectors and regions of Britain – not just those in the financial sector in London – could pay the price of Brexit with their jobs. Ms O’Grady is expected to call for the trade unions to be at the Brexit negotiating table, alongside the nations, the regions and the CBI. Mrs May should pick up that challenge, too.
The shaming of Sports Direct and Hermes courier service are signs of times that should be rapidly changing. The rail and doctors’ disputes are also mood indicators that should not be ignored. Yet there were fewer workers involved in disputes in 2015 than in any year since 1893. The British economy is ripe for a fairer approach to wages, workplace protection and corporate governance than it has seen in a generation. Mrs May should be bold enough to show that a country that works for all is one that celebrates good companies and good trade unions alike.
