Posted: 9 August 2017
Manuel Cortes, General Secretary of the TSSA, has written for LabourList about his union’s support for the Labour Campaign for Free Movement:
“There is a debate taking place within our movement on whether EU migrants to the UK are responsible for a cut in wages and terms and conditions in our country. There have been numerous academic studies that have found scant evidence for this assumption.
“Yet the false perception persists, promoted to a large extent by our right-wing media and UKIP’s two decade-long xenophobic mantra, that the wholesale importation of EU workers is undermining those already working within our shores.
“Sadly, this disingenuous narrative has taken root within our movement. It helped deliver the Brexit vote. But as we debate the Brexit we want, it’s high time we weeded out this fallacious and, frankly, xenophobic and at times bordering on racist, argument.
“As a trade unionist, my response is that we must organise all workers to achieve a better deal across the piece. National origin is neither here nor there. …”