FIGHTING MODE 4

T he fight against the proposed European Union/India Free Trade Agreement and the widespread social dumping it would create is gathering pace and the issue will now be debated at this year’s TUC Congress. One union, RMT, is now campaigning against the most secretive aspect of this deal, the labour liberalisation concept called Mode 4, which allows corporations to drive down wages. At its annual general meeting RMT delegates were warned that EU Mode 4 commitments would hand transnational corporations the power to bring in cheap labour from outside the EU to work on extremely low rates of pay. “The UK is the main and very willing target for these corporations and it will undermine UK labour conditions and displace UK workers. “These workers will not be classed as immigrants and the company will be holding their visas,” RMT delegate Gary Abbott warned delegates. The union is now seeking to publicise how UK workers are being sold out in EU international trade deals and to challenge the UK government’s complicity in this. Public debate on economic recovery always acknowledges the central importance of employment and of workers earning and spending. But if transnational corporations displace earning and spending workers with a ‘reserve army’ of cheaper, temporary migrant workers, clearly recovery is undermined. Yet this is not so readily recognised, and neither are the government measures that allow this to happen. In particular, trade concessions that encourage such social dumping are being deliberately hidden. Workers earning and spending, allowing others to earn and spend, is what Keynes called the multiplier effect. While temporary cheap migrant labour may benefit individual companies and their shareholders, it cuts across the earn/spend cycle and the multiplier effect, and is negative for the national economy. It means that wages leave the country, there is a loss of tax and national insurance income, the welfare bill increases as resident UK workers are displaced and become unemployed, young workers are denied work opportunities, and there is a irretrievable loss of skills that is ominous for the future of the economy. Transnational corporations cream off profits from moving cheap labour across borders. There is a continuum of measures allowing big business to capitalise on transnational wage differences. - EU free movement of workers but particularly EU free movement of services allows EU firms bring in their own cheaper labour from inside and outside of the EU. - Two categories in the UK Points-Based System allow transnational firms to bring in workers with no numerical limits. - The EU’s Mode 4 offers, included in all EU trade agreements, allow transnational firms to bring in temporary workers. The UK Points-Based System categories of ‘Intracorporate Transferees’ (ICTs) in Tier 2 and FIGHTING MODE 4 Linda Kaucher addressed an RMT fringe meeting at the Tolpuddle festival about a secretive trade deal between India and the European Union that will increase the exploitation of workers RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2011 :: RMTnews 12 Linda Kaucher (middle) addresses meeting chaired by RMT president Alex Gordon (right) and with John Dixon (left), the Australian New South Wales Teachers Federation leader