We now move to the short debate, which was postponed from 6 July, and I call on Bethan Jenkins to speak on the topic she has chosen, ‘We Need our Unions More than Ever’. Bethan.

Thanks, and I’ve given a minute to Dawn Bowden.

We owe the Wales we live in today to trade unionism. This isn’t just my view. Anyone who has read the work of Gwyn Alf Williams will know that he pinpointed one particular moment in time, the uprising in my home town of Merthyr Tydfil in 1831, as the moment when the Welsh working class moved from what he called the ‘primitive stage’ to organising itself. While trade unionism first came to Wales in 1830, when Flintshire miners joined the friendly association of coal miners, it was the flashpoint that was the Merthyr rising, with its totemic moments like the first raising of the red flag and its still-unpardoned hanging of Dic Penderyn, that were to deliver the impetus and the inspiration for an organised and active working class in industrial Wales.

Most of industrial Wales is now gone. Perhaps Port Talbot in my region is one of the last outposts of what we would recognise as heavy industry and an industrial community, and long may that continue. But even though trade unions were such key players during that era—and you can also see their cultural importance and community roots in the writing of Alexander Cordell, Jack Jones, Lewis Jones and Raymond Williams—it doesn’t follow that they belong only to one time. Far from it.

‘Trade unions have been an essential force for social change, without which a semblance of a decent and humane society is impossible under capitalism.’

That quote comes from Pope Francis.

It is also my belief that, for all the time we have capitalism and capitalism’s problems, we’re going to need trade unions. US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis—I’m not sure if I said that right—dubbed a ‘militant crusader for social justice’ by his enemies, once said:

‘Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them the labor bargain is wholly one-sided. The parties to the labor contract must be nearly equal in strength if justice is to be worked out, and this means that the workers must be organized and that their organizations must be recognized by employers as a condition precedent to industrial peace.’

The story of trade unionism in the UK over the past 35 years—since I was born, in fact—is one of unprecedented and sustained attack upon their very right to exist, from Government, the media and the rest of the establishment. We know why. Were it not for the tenets of Thatcherism, would we have zero-hours contracts, institutionalised blacklisting and so-called ‘lawyers’ houses’, where professional people live eight to a property, sharing bedrooms because they cannot get on the housing ladder? And were it not for trade unions and their tradition of resisting neoliberal doctrine, surely we would have it a lot worse.

We’ve seen a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the already-wealthy, and we have our public services paying for the recklessness of our bankers. Men and women paying with their jobs and their terms and conditions—teachers, nurses, firefighters—all because of City folly. And through a similarly decades-long propaganda war fought by the right-wing press, people have been conditioned to think that there is something wasteful and unnecessary about public services; that we should decimate our emergency services, endanger the safety of our country through cuts to the police and the Border Force; reduce our children’s opportunities through education; and risk the lives of our loved ones in hospitals because of slashed budgets—all in the name of austerity.

This is the environment in which trade unions now have to operate: outright hostility from those that oppose them, and, sadly, widespread indifference among those they could be helping. There hasn’t been a more bleak landscape for employees for generations. And yet, worse is to come. I don’t doubt for a minute that scrapping the working time directive will be among the Tory Government’s first post-Brexit priorities. It is this chip-chipping away at workers’ rights that trade unions were specifically designed to resist.

There is bitter irony in the realisation that austerity has put trade unions and Labour-led administrations here in Wales on either side of the negotiation table. We’ve seen some pretty terrible examples, unfortunately. Neath Port Talbot council threatened to fire its entire workforce and re-employ them on worse terms and conditions. Many of those workers were part-time, single parents, trying to run single-income households.

Bridgend County Borough Council took longer than almost every other Welsh local authority to implement job evaluation. I know it was a challenge, but still, by the time they got around to it, we were already deep into austerity’s winter. What that meant was those people who were due a cut soon saw their salaries reduced, while those who should have been given a rise didn’t receive it. When tackled about it, the council shrugged its shoulders and said it didn’t have the money.

There has also been industrial unrest in agencies like the National Library for Wales and, particularly, National Museum Wales. Here, PCS, as has been mentioned in questions today, put up a spirited fight against plans by management to slash working hours and premium payments among its lowest paid staff, and actually pitted union against union, which is something I hope never to see again. The dispute dragged on for the best part of two years and culminated in a two-month strike that was only recently resolved. Staff blamed management and management blamed the Welsh Government for cutting its budget. For whatever reason, it was resolved, but there is no doubt in my mind that it was down to the sheer determination of the union to look after its members’ interests that carried the day. Had they not been there, it would have been a very different story, and an unhappy one at that.

We wait to see what will happen in Natural Resources Wales. Here, we have two successive staff survey reports that scream unhappiness among staff at the way the organisation is run. Will it result in industrial action? That remains to be seen and I severely hope not. I have met with Unison, which represents a majority of the staff there, and, once again, they are conducting their own survey and tell me they will consult on the way forward when they have done that.

The right-wing press would have us believe that unions are still stuffed with insurrectionists who cry, ‘All out, brothers!’ on the flimsiest of excuses. The truth is that most industrial disputes never get beyond a disagreement, and they are resolved by people sitting down and actually talking through the issue. In my experience—and you can choose to decide whether it is anecdotal or not—it is often hard-headed management that potentially escalate disagreements into these types of disputes.

As I’ve mentioned, a lot of these disputes pit political allies against one another. As such, trade unions will often come to me or other non-Labour representatives to seek our help—and I’m obviously happy to give them such help. But, what I would say to any trade union that may be watching this or may want to respond afterwards is: please don’t feel we can’t work together because we come from a different political background. In fact, I joined Plaid partly, although not indefinitely, because—and Dawn may have something to say about this—I saw the Labour Party in my own hometown as a party that did fail to represent me. They weren’t like me; they didn’t represent me; they didn’t want to engage with people like me. I think that’s something for the Labour Party in Wales to reflect on as to how they can engage with people in their own Valleys communities.

With a Welsh Government now in place for the coming five years, think back to what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said about the balance of a bargain. Why not consider signing a memorandum of understanding with parties such as Plaid Cymru—naturally left-leaning parties that are supportive of the needs of workers and the aims of unions? I would ask any trade union listening to this debate to go away and actually consider the idea. Go away and ask yourselves what there is to gain, and what you might lose. I think you have more to gain by engaging with us.

To everyone else, and particularly to those young people, some of whom I have spoken with, who were left distraught by the referendum result, now is the time for you to organise as they did in Merthyr in 1831. As well as joining, potentially, a political party, I would also urge you to join a union. As Frances O’Grady, the first woman TUC general secretary, said recently:

‘All the evidence shows very clearly that if you are a member of a trade union you are likely to get better pay, more equal pay, better health and safety, more chance to get training, more chance to have conditions of work that help if you have caring responsibilities...the list goes on!’

If you don’t want to leave the fate of your country in the hands of people whose views you profoundly disagree with, then remember what it is that unions have done in the past, and continue to do to this day. I’ll leave the last word to another American civil rights advocate, the lawyer Clarence Darrow:

‘With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization…that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association’.

Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you, Bethan Jenkins, for letting me have my minute. Can I also thank Bethan for reminding us about the Merthyr Rising and the part that that played in the development of the trade union movement? I was very honoured to speak at the opening of the Merthyr Rising festival this year, which is the event—a now annual event—that commemorates that particular event. I’m very glad that you’re proud of being from Merthyr, Bethan, and I’m very proud of being the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney. The only area I think I’d probably disagree with you on is that it was actually my involvement in the trade union movement that brought me into the Labour Party, because I felt that the Labour Party stood for the values that I followed in the trade union.

So, those of you who are familiar with my background will obviously be aware of why I’m supporting this particular motion. I’m particularly pleased to have the opportunity to speak as one thing that’s clear that I’ve learnt during my time—or I did learn during my time—as a full-time officer with Unison is how fortunate we actually are to live in Wales and to have such a constructive relationship between the Welsh Government and the trade unions, one that I know is the envy of my colleagues who work on the other side of Offa’s Dyke. In referring to Offa’s Dyke, it’s probably an opportune time to talk about the partnership working between the trade unions and the Welsh Government in NHS Wales, which, in 2014, saw the contrast between a pay dispute and industrial action in England, and a negotiated pay settlement delivering the real living wage to all NHS employees in Wales. I raise that point because I think it’s appropriate to say that good government, as well as good employers, can deliver good industrial relations. Of course, we also have the workforce partnership council here in Wales, dealing with workforce issues in our devolved public services, a body that led to the creation of the staff commission, which will play a significant role in the future reform of local government and public services.

But the partnership working ethos can also extend beyond public services. Last week, some of you may have attended the Glas Cymru celebrations of 15 years of ownership of Dŵr Cymru as a not-for-profit company. Glas Cymru’s chief executive, Chris Jones, told the assembled guests that the significant efficiency challenges set for the company by Ofwat could never have been so constructively achieved without the full engagement of the trade unions under their ‘working together’ agreement. So, with the challenges that face us post Brexit, it is absolutely the case that trade unions have more relevance than ever across the UK and, as a Welsh Assembly, we should be doing everything in our power to foster and support trade unions here in Wales.

Thank you. I now call on the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to reply to the debate—Mark Drakeford.

Diolch yn fawr, Ddirprwy Lywydd. It’s a pleasure to take part in this short debate and it’s a great thing, I think, that the last words we will speak on the floor of the Assembly before we go away on our summer break in this first year of the fifth Assembly will be about trade unionism and its importance here in Wales. I’m not going to compete with either Bethan or the Member for Merthyr in looking at the history of trade unionism, but I don’t think we understand the title of this short debate, that our need for trade unions is now greater than ever, unless we look at some of the things that have brought us to where we are. The very first meeting of the TUC, the Trades Union Congress, happened in 1868. On its agenda: wage inequalities, workers’ hours, technical education and threats to jobs and workers’ rights. So, it’s a long haul from 1868 to today, but the agendas in many ways stay remarkably the same, and the challenges for trade unionism throughout that period. I’ve no doubt, at all those points, people have said to themselves, and rightly, that they needed trade unions more than ever. Who today remembers Mabon’s Monday, when trade unionists in the mining industry refused to go to work on the first Monday of the month for six long years in order to limit production and so protect wages? We certainly remember the Taff Vale judgment of 1901, with its attacks on the right to strike, and the Osborne judgment of 1909, which ruled it unlawful for trade unions to contribute to political funds. The history of trade unionism and the history of Wales are absolutely intrinsically linked, aren’t they? Both of those judgments were overturned by concerted trade union action.

Now, Dirprwy Lywydd, the first general election that I took part in, in Cardiff, was in 1983. I was remarkably young and I was put in charge of postal votes. [Interruption.] I wasn’t quite that young. But here I was, I had not long come to Cardiff, and I was put in charge of postal votes for the Cardiff West constituency, no doubt because it was thought of as something so harmless that I was unlikely to make a complete mess of it. In those days, as some of us here will remember, getting a postal vote was much, much harder than it is today. You had to go to a very particular person to have the postal vote application signed, and, in Cardiff West Labour Party, there was only one person that I was allowed to go to, and his name was Stan Czekaj, and he was in his 80s, and I was in my 20s, and Stan’s great claim to fame was that he had ridden the motorbike from south Wales to London in the general strike of 1926, taking messages from the committee here to the Trades Union Congress committee there. In some ways, you know, did they not need trade unions more than ever in 1926? That thread of our history really is unbroken. In south Wales, in 1926, the general strike was largely led by A.J. Cook—‘an agitator of the worst type’, said the deputy chief constable of Glamorgan, writing to the Home Office at the time—whose blue plaque at the Rhondda Heritage Park I know the leader of the opposition spoke at when it was unveiled only a few weeks ago. We also have a long tradition of turning our agitators into our heroes many years later down the line.

So, there was A.J. Cook, of whom Arthur Horner, another great south Wales miners’ leader said, thinking of how he managed to rouse public meetings during that 1926 campaign—Arthur Horner would say how he would turn up and speak first, and he would make a lengthy and earnest speech that people would listen to calmly enough, and then A.J. Cook would follow him and make this fantastic rousing speech that would leave everybody on fire at the end of it. And Horner said, looking back, he realised that the difference between the two of them was that he, Arthur Horner, was speaking to the meeting, whereas Arthur Cook was always speaking for the meeting, and, by capturing people’s views at the time, he was able to reflect those back to them in a way that inspired them to take the action that they did. So, that’s Arthur Cook, who led the first hunger strike march from south Wales to London in the 1920s, where they were met by that great black artist of the twentieth century, Paul Robeson, who was playing Othello in the west end, and who came out to meet the south Wales miners as they walked into London—the start of his decades-long association with south Wales, speaking in 1938 to 7,000 people at Mountain Ash as he unveiled the memorial to the 33 men from south Wales who died in the international brigades in the Spanish civil war. And, on Saturday this week, we will mark the eightieth anniversary of those people’s contribution when we meet at the international brigades’ memorial in Cathays Park, here in Cardiff. They needed trade unions, didn’t they? And they needed them, I’m sure, in the words of this motion, they would think, more than ever before.

Now, Dirprwy Lywydd, there is a long history, and we don’t have time to go through it all. We wouldn’t want to leave it without mentioning the miners’ strike, that formative experience for many people who are in this Chamber. The trade union that I belonged to at the time, as did the leader of the opposition, the National Association of Probation Officers, had somehow wangled ourselves to be official observers, whatever that might mean, at the strike. So, I would get up at 4.30 in the morning and go with others to watch the struggle outside pits in south Wales as hundreds and hundreds of police officers were needed to allow lorries to make their way in and out of south Wales collieries. And those formative moments—I think, quite certainly, as we stood there, we knew that trade unions were needed more than ever.

It was the start of that story, that sad story that Bethan outlined when she pointed to the history of trade unionism—the attacks on it that have happened over those 30 years. So, why do we need them more than ever today? Well, here are three reasons, I think: first of all, the objective position of working people in the United Kingdom today is different even than it was in some of those earlier struggles. UK workers are suffering the longest and most severe decline in real earnings since records began in Victorian times. The share that labour takes of our national income is at a 50-year low, whereas the share taken by capital is at a 50-year high. And the effect of that is absolutely real. Here is Andrew Haldane, the chief economist of the Bank of England, speaking at the TUC annual conference last year, where he said that:

‘Had US real wages tracked productivity since 1970, the median worker today would be 40% better off. Had UK wages tracked productivity since 1990, the median worker today would be 20% better off. Unlike earlier phases of rapid technological change, labour has not shared equally in the fruits of recent great leaps forward’.

Part of the reason why labour has not shared in the fruits of that technological advance is because trade unions have been weaker and have been less able to represent their members here, in the United States, and across other parts of Europe at all. In an absolutely objective sense, trade unions are needed more than ever.

They’re needed more than ever—and my second reason, Dirprwy Lywydd—because of the direct attacks that still go on on trade unions at the UK level. Here in Wales, we are committed to the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016, and I look forward very much to being the Minister who will bring that repeal legislation in front of this Assembly during this Assembly term, because weakening trade unions is not simply an act of vandalism in itself, but it actually undermines the ability of the social partnership to deliver the things that are good for us all.

My third reason is the result of the referendum on 23 June, because, very sadly, those people—and we’ve had a very useful discussion today of why people made the choices that they did—who rejected the European Union and who have needed its protections the most will find, I think, that the choice is not between a Europe that they disliked and a better future, but an Americanisation, an Atlanticist agenda, in which TTIP will be something that those people who persuaded people to vote in the way they did will embrace as fast as they are able to do it. In the aftermath of the leaving of the social protections afforded by the European Union, trade unions are needed more than ever. So, tomorrow I will attend the workforce partnership council here in Cardiff, as here in Wales we try—and it’s not easy and you don’t always agree and I’m quite certain that local authorities run by parties of many different political persuasions have had their moments with their trade union colleagues and the people who work for them—but we try to do the hard yards of sitting around the table together—the Government, the trade unions, the employers—in that social partnership model that we know provides our best chance of weathering the storm that we face, and where trade unions go on providing an absolutely essential service for their members in a time when they are indeed needed more than ever. Diolch yn fawr.

Diolch yn fawr. That brings our proceedings to a close. Thank you very much.

The meeting ended at 19:16.