Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:44 pm on 31 January 2017.
What I would like to do is to work closely with those communities affected so they don’t feel afraid to come forward to offer their testimony. Quite often, that will be done under the promise of anonymity, and that is something that we will look to take forward. Recently, I finished reading Dennis Skinner’s autobiography. Now, he’s not normally a politician who I would share a huge amount in common with, perhaps, in many ways, but what he did say about Polish workers in the mines after the war was interesting. He said there was no animosity towards them because they were members of a trade union. They were not seen in any way as undercutting wages. They were seen as being in the same position and they had the same protections as workers in the UK, and that’s exactly what we need to get back to. Too many people have low wages, firstly because of austerity, and secondly because they don’t have the support of a trade union. And we know that workplaces that are unionised deliver better terms and conditions for those people who work in those workplaces. That’s why it’s important to make sure that all workers, as much as we can get them to that point, are covered through trade union membership, wherever they come from in the world.