More on the Tories and the Unions

Further to yesterday’s post on the appointment of Mr David Balfe as David Cameron’s envoy to the unions, Conservative Home has published an article by Mr Balfe on the relationship between the Conservative Party and trade unions. He begins,

One day soon there is going to be a Conservative Government. That’s the way things happen in democracies. This incoming Government and the Unions, particularly in the public sector, need to get to know each other and appreciate our differences whilst at the same time recognising our joint desire to build an economically sound and strong Britain with first class public services.

Read the full article here.

Being A Union Member – and a Tory Sympathiser

Just over a year ago, I joined my workplace union. I was not fired by any left wing principle, rather pragmatism. I have an excellent employer, but if anything should ever go wrong with them, it occurred to me that it might actually be a good idea to have a support system to help me out.

Since then, in for a penny and in for a pound as they say, and in the belief that it is good to help out, I have become a Union Rep.

We all recall Gordon Brown’s non-election as leader of the Labour Party last summer. But there was, of course, an election for deputy-leader. As a union member, I was entitled to vote for one of the candidates. However, and despite the fact that I am a member of my union’s political fund – meaning that I pay a contribution to Labour – I felt that I could not do so on the grounds that my political views are, generally speaking, right-of-centre.

But having grown up a witness to the dying cries of the power of the Trade Union movement through the miners’ strike in the 80s, it was my impression that the Conservative Party had nothing at all to do with unions. Unfortunate. Surely, so much could be achieved by the two sides engaging with each other – not necessarily agreeing, but at least talking.

So, I was very pleased to read on Conservative Home yesterday about the appointment of Mr David Balfe as ‘David Cameron’s personal envoy to the trade union movement’.

Conservative Home cites the following statement, made by Mr Balfe and quoted by The Independent,

“Around 30 per cent of trade union members vote Conservative, and under David Cameron’s leadership the Conservative Party has shown that it has the ideas and vision to harness the co-operative movement in a way that can really benefit society. I want to show that we in the Conservative Party want to listen to and learn from these two valuable partners in society.”

I hope very much that the unions are open minded enough to listen to Mr Balfe.

For my part, Conservative Home has indirectly reminded of the Catholic Church’s own Social Doctrine. It began with the encyclical Rerum Novarum, published by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, and is all about the right of the workers to form unions. Successive popes since have written ‘update’ encyclicals about this matter.

At a union meeting not long ago, we were asked why we got involved. I said that if it was good enough for the popes, it was good enough for me. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one knew about Rerum  et al. As time allows, I shall return to it. The Catholic Church’s Social Doctrine is the Cinderella doctrine of the Church and really deserves to be more widely heard.