Community proposed the following motion at the 2007 TUC conference
Motion 34 Manufacturing in the United Kingdom
Congress is profoundly concerned about the decline of employment in manufacturing in Britain from four million in 2000 to below three million in 2006. Despite ten years of financial stability and economic growth the loss of manufacturing jobs in Britain has been much faster and productivity improvement much slower than in any other European Union country. In the European Union, Britain also has the largest trade deficit and British energy prices remain the highest. For years, investment in British manufacturing has been inadequate to maintain competitiveness despite deregulation, tax incentives, and other employer-friendly policies and the close attention the Government has paid to CBI advice.
Congress is convinced that economic growth cannot be maintained indefinitely in the absence of a thriving industrial base and that without the contribution to growth of technical advance in manufacturing, it will be increasingly difficult for the United Kingdom to maintain rising levels of public expenditure. Congress calls on the Government to reassess the impact on manufacturing of the instability and over-valuation of Sterling in relation to the Euro and the systemic conflict between the narrow remit of the Monetary Policy Committee and the needs of manufacturing.
Congress in addition calls on the Government to work in close co-operation with the TUC to establish a fair trading environment for British manufacturing by addressing, in particular, the excessive costs of energy; inappropriate trade and public procurement policies; and the failure to utilise available EU resources to promote British manufacturing advance.
The following amendment was passed
Paragraph 2, after first sentence ending 'expenditure' insert:
'For example, Congress is concerned that although the defence industrial base will be boosted by the Carrier contracts, it is likely that only one shipyard will be needed after 2016. As a result there is a challenge of retaining technical expertise and training apprentices without the prospect of secure employment.'
After this insertion, make existing 'Congress calls on...' into new paragraph 3.
General Secretary Michael J Leahy, OBE, moved the motion on behalf of Community and gave the following speech
President, Delegates, we are 10 years into the remorseless pursuit of financial prudence by a government which, unfortunately, pays slavish attention to the CBI. The relationship is made flesh by co-opting a loud-mouth non-Labour former director of the CBI into a key economic post; yet we have the fastest decline in manufacturing employment in the western world. As recently as 2000, there were well over 4 million manufacturing jobs in Britain. Last year, there were fewer than 3 million.
Why, you might ask? Well, they cannot blame us! Tony Blair took pride in declaring that we had the least regulated economy in the EU and in maintaining the violations of normal trade union rights introduced by the Tories. Inferior productivity is not the main reason. Typically, the steel industry, for instance, in the UK has seen productivity increases averaging 10% per annum during the past 20 years; yet we have lost steel jobs at a faster rate than any other European country.
Short-sighted and greedy management must be part of the explanation and, in particular, their failure to invest. This has been repeated throughout British manufacturing. In the past 10 years, investment has actually fallen by 42%.
There is one critical respect in which British industry differs from its counterparts in the rest of the European Union, the US and the emerging economic super powers of China and India. The authorities here are, unfortunately, enslaved by non-intervention. One consequence of this ideological bent of our own ministers and civil servants for the free market means that last year in the steel industry we roughly paid one-third more in energy than did our European competitors. We are convinced that the public policy framework prejudices the opportunities for manufacturing to prosper.
Delegates, Gordon Brown shows a profound concern for the social and moral state of our country, but this has not been reflected in the policies for which he is principally responsible. He takes pride in having made the Bank of England independent in setting interest rates and determining monetary policy. The usual result is that as soon as manufacturing output shows a minimal upturn, the Monetary Policy Committee panics about inflation and introduces interest rate rises.
Brothers and sisters, that is not the fault of the Committee. It is their sole responsibility. It is does not seem to be a matter of concern to Mervyn King that the astronomical bonuses of his mates in the City boost property values and inflation generally.
The next stage of the vicious circle is that sterling exchange rate strengthens against Euro terms. This makes imports cheaper, exports more expensive and worsening the yawning trade deficit. This circle has undermined the prospect of attracting investment. The instability of the exchange rate also makes UK a risk destination for all long-term commitment of resources. Another reason is that other EU governments make sure that the public procurement rules of the European Union are applied in favour of home production.
Colleagues, our motion does not ask for any special treatment for British manufacturing. We want the nation to take a cold, detached look at the reasons for our failure as a manufacturing nation. We want to be able to compete with the rest of Europe and the rest of the world on a fair and equal basis. Colleagues, delegates, I call on you to adopt this motion. Thank you.