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</v:shape><![endif]--><![if !vml]><img width=493 height=669 src="cid:image007.jpg@01CE9FEB.5261B8B0" align=left hspace=12 v:shapes="Picture_x0020_1"><![endif]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The Institute of Employment Rights (IER) will launch a policy proposal for an alternative growth strategy at the TUC Congress this year. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:14.4pt;background:white'><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_3" o:spid="_x0000_s1026" type="#_x0000_t75" style='position:absolute;margin-left:269.4pt;margin-top:-5.3pt;width:330.7pt;height:322.1pt;z-index:-2;visibility:visible;mso-wrap-distance-left:9pt;mso-wrap-distance-top:0;mso-wrap-distance-right:9pt;mso-wrap-distance-bottom:0;mso-position-horizontal:right;mso-position-horizontal-relative:text;mso-position-vertical:absolute;mso-position-vertical-relative:text' wrapcoords="660 -674 111 -563 -879 563 -549 22737 441 23411 660 23411 21976 23411 22198 23411 23187 22851 23187 22737 23295 22737 23625 21161 23625 1127 23736 788 22746 -339 22087 -674 660 -674">
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</v:shape><![endif]--><![if !vml]><img width=441 height=429 src="cid:image009.jpg@01CE9FEB.5261B8B0" align=right hspace=12 v:shapes="Picture_x0020_3"><![endif]><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Authored by renowned academic Professor Keith Ewing and go-to trade union lawyer John Hendy QC, the evidence-based report will provide a detailed guide to how income inequality can be successful tackled through collective bargaining. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Narrowing the earnings gap and improving workplace conditions will have a knock-on effect on other areas of the economy, as summarised in the infographic to the right. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:14.4pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Full details of Ewing and Keith's ten-point manifesto – which is already backed by nine unions: Unite, Unison, GMB, NUT, PCS, CWU, UCU, RMT and ATL – and proposals for the encouragement of further collective and sectoral bargaining in the UK, will be announced on Sunday 08 September 2013. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style='line-height:14.4pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The authors will be joined by Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey, NUT General Secretary Christine Blower and RMT General Secretary Bob Crow in the Branksome Suite of Bournemouth International Centre at 7pm. This event, named Reconstruction after Crisis: a manifesto for collective bargaining is hosted by the IER in conjunction with the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (Class) and the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom (CTUF).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Chair of the IER John Hendy said: </span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"<i>A fundamental problem with the British economy is the dramatic drop in the value of wages. As well as painfully diminishing the standard of living for most people (while the rich enjoy ever increasing wealth) this has depressed demand causing the loss of jobs, loss of tax revenue and one of the worst performing economies in Europe. A vital way to re-establish the value of wages, decrease inequality, and stimulate job creation, is to reinstate sectoral collective bargaining - that is collective bargaining on an industry by industry basis. In this book we seek to demonstrate that extensive collective bargaining coverage of this kind was government policy for 75 years (until Thatcher and neo-liberalism) and was the favoured technique in this country, Europe and the US to end the depression of the 1930s. Furthermore, as we try to explain, collective bargaining is the only way of giving workers an effective voice in the workplace, giving them sufficient power to prevent injustice at work and, most important, fulfilling the UK’s binding international legal obligations to promote collective bargaining." <o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>President of the IER Keith Ewing said:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> <i>"The decline in collective bargaining represents a disaster for British workers, who have seen a growing gap between rich and poor, a reduction in the share of national wealth allocated to wages, and the emergence of new forms of exploitative working practices, such as zero-hours contracts. There will be no long-term solution to current economic gloom without raising wages and equalising incomes. Only by doing so will we stimulate demand, increase spending, and create real and fully productive jobs that do not need to be subsidised by the State.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Every worker should have the right to be covered by a collective agreement. The next Labour government must take steps to make this happen."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>We hope to see you there<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><img width=492 height=668 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image010.jpg@01CE9FEB.5261B8B0"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>Sarah Glenister<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><i>IT Development and Communications Assistant<o:p></o:p></i></p><p class=MsoNormal>Institute of Employment Rights<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>4th Floor, Jack Jones House, 1 Islington, Liverpool, L3 8EG<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>0151 207 5265<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>