"Built in the unions' distant 1970s heyday, the hulking traditional venue for their annual TUC conference is sometimes a melancholy place, windowless meeting rooms half-full of delegates and union leaders trying to raise their spirits while talking about setbacks, betrayals and rare victories. Yet for much of this conference the sun was out, the wind was light by Brighton standards and, inside the centre, the exhibition stand for Labour Unions, the collective body for those affiliated to the party, was plastered with uplifting posters promoting Labour's new deal for working people."
"With the party down to 20% in some polls, ever further below Reform UK, if we assume that Labour's total vote of 9.7 million at the last election has fallen in line with its ratings, there may now be fewer Labour supporters, about 6 million, than there are trade unionists who numbered 6.4 million at the last count, after almost half a century of shrinkage."
"So unions find themselves in an unexpected and paradoxical position. The more the government struggles, the more it needs their support unlike New Labour's much more popular, less union-friendly administrations. Let us remember, we are the real power of the Labour movement, said Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, in an almost swaggering speech in Brighton on Tuesday, rapturously received in the cavernous main hall."
A giant sign proclaimed 'Unions winning' along the windy seafront side of the Brighton Centre. The TUC conference occupies a hulking 1970s venue with windowless meeting rooms where delegates recount setbacks, betrayals and occasional victories. Sunny, calm weather contrasted with the venue's melancholy atmosphere. Labour Unions displayed posters promoting a new deal for working people. An employment rights bill with several improvements is expected to clear a parliamentary hurdle. Unions are seeing a rare expansion of power and membership even as Labour's popularity declines, creating a paradoxical dependence amid a rising radical-right threat.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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