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LONDON — Theresa May has set Britain on course for a kamikaze Brexit. With time quickly running out, negotiations are going nowhere. We are heading toward a cliff edge in 2019 with no transitional arrangement and no long-term deal in place.
Trade unions understand the importance of adopting a clear and realistic strategy for negotiations. And unlike Prime Minister May’s divided government, we have put in the hard work to agree a united position, common across the entire Trades Union Congress membership.
Trade unions are united behind the principle of protecting jobs and workers’ rights. Once you put the needs of working people first, a sensible way forward becomes clear.
Some 2.5 million jobs are directly linked to the United Kingdom’s trade with the European Union. And British firms sold £240 billion of goods and services to EU nations in the last year. Brexit must not put those jobs and businesses at risk.
We’re clear, however, that the single market is not perfect.
If we crash out of the EU in 18 months without a transitional deal that keeps us in the single market and customs union, those jobs will be at risk. It’s clear that staying in the single market for a transitional period is the common sense position.
For the long-term deal with the EU, we want to keep all options on the table. The tests we set are whether the deal protects jobs and rights at work — and whether the deal offers the opportunity to attract the investment needed to create more great jobs.
There is an option that we know meets our tests: staying in the single market for the long term.
If there’s another way of getting a frictionless deal that protects jobs and rights at work, trade unions would love to know. But so far nobody has come up with a convincing alternative idea, let alone a fully-fledged plan.
To those who say that this commits us to ongoing, unfettered freedom of movement, we answer that there are things the government could do within the single market to manage migration better: cracking down on the exploitation of migrants at work; closing the loopholes that let bosses undercut the going rate for a job by paying migrant workers less; and putting cash into underfunded public services so that they work better for everyone.
When it comes to workers’ rights, staying in the single market is clearly the best option. The EU (Withdrawal) Bill debated in the House of Commons this week is an inadequate safeguard. A future government, or unscrupulous lawyers acting for bad bosses, could undermine hard-won workers’ rights.
By staying in the single market, we would keep the guarantee of a level playing field on workers’ rights. It would protect them not just at the point of our departure from the EU but far into the future.
We’re clear, however, that the single market is not perfect. We will continue to reject the push for liberalization and privatization and campaign alongside the European Trade Union Confederation for a single market that puts working people first.
The guiding principle should be the interests of working people.
Our ongoing solidarity with workers throughout the rest of Europe is vital. Bad employers see Brexit as a chance to drive a wedge between Britain and Europe and to start a race to the bottom on workers’ protections. In fact, they’re at it already, lobbying the U.K. government for a Brexit that will let them rebalance workplace power in favor of bosses.
That’s why the terms of the Brexit deal matter to workers across Europe, not just those in the U.K. It will be a damaging deal for all of Europe if it allows EU workers to be undercut by firms seeking to exploit workers in post-Brexit Britain. Unions don’t want a trade deal that’s silent on worker protections or that puts our public services at risk.
With just 18 months to go until Brexit day, there is a tremendous amount at stake. But if British and EU workers stay firm in their solidarity and succeed in persuading negotiators on both sides of the table that the guiding principle should be the interests of working people, we can make Brexit as smooth as possible.
Frances O’Grady is the general secretary of the British Trades Union Congress.