TUC chief hits back over ‘relevance’ of unions

UK
bosses are ‘in a time warp’ if they think unions are irrelevant, according to
outgoing TUC president, Roger Lyons.

Speaking
at the TUC conference, he hit back at comments made last week by Digby Jones, head of the CBI, who
branded unions ‘increasingly irrelevant’.

Lyons
said: "You are completely out of touch if you believe workers are so well
off they don’t need unions."

"It
is not us who are out of touch with the aspirations of the British people or
stuck in a time warp,” he said. "The reality is that too many employers
are behind the times, out of touch and putting exploitation of the flexible,
under-regulated labour market before investment in skills."

Lyons
also said pensions "were under attack everywhere except, of course, the boardroom, where promoting
inequality is a major pastime".

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For
a full interview with Roger Lyons as he retires from the post of TUC president,
see this week’s Personnel Today magazine.

By Michael Millar