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Press Release

Unite at congress 2011: Tough action needed to defend rights and the economy

8 September 2011

The country's biggest union, Unite, will be pushing for emergency action on the economy and the defence of workers' rights at this year's Trades Union Congress in London (beginning Monday, September 12th).

Chief among the union's calls will be a push for a mass investment in infrastructure projects to tackle unemployment and get people back to work.

The union will also warn the government against any attempt to abandon the pledge to end the exploitation of the one million or so agency workers in the UK by 2012.

Speaking ahead of Congress, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: "Not content with knee-capping the economy, the coalition is also mounting a sinister assault on workers' rights. It is high time that a UK government supported workers over big business, because failure to do so has brought this country nothing but harm.

"Equally, we need to stop the vandalism of our economy. This country did not vote for joblessness, nor for the destruction of our services. 'No' to ideological cuts and 'Yes ' to a fairer, better Britain will be the message government must heed."

Unite will also be taking a lead role in the debates on Bombardier, where it will be pressing for the government to reverse its decision to give preferential bidder status to Seimens, thus putting some 10,000 UK jobs at risk, and for a halt to the attacks on pensions which have left some 14 million workers without any pension cover.

On the Congress Fringe, Unite has three events:

Defending access to Justice, Monday, September 12th- with Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty and Mark Lewis, the solicitor who defended Milly Dowler's family as it was revealed their phones had been hacked into by News International reporters.

Reconnecting Britain, Tuesday, September 13th- where Len McCluskey, Unite general secretary, will debate with Tom Watson MP, Owen Jones (author of Chavs) and Kingsley Abrams, a community activist from Brixton, on how Labour can win back five million lost voters.

Bombardier - government is halting the 'march of the makers', Wednesday, September 14th- where Unite and the RMT will press for action to save the UK's remaining rail jobs.



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