The link between Labour and unions is central to our movement - Andy McDonald

Labour MPs are inextricably bound to workplaces, our public services and communities through the relationship.

Nurses, hospital cleaners, care assistants, rail workers, postal employees, retail staff, and those in the energy sector, have an authentic voice in Labour policy-making through affiliated trade unions.

In the next few weeks, the annual Trades Union Congress in Brighton, will be shortly followed by Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

At both gatherings the link between Labour and the unions must be a cause for celebration, as we prepare to fight the next General Election against a Tory party hellbent on a Thatcherite revival.

It is the unions who represent Britain’s Covid heroes, the nurses who risked their lives on hospital wards at the height of the pandemic, care workers looking after our most vulnerable citizens in nursing homes, and the ambulance staff who ferried the most gravely sick people to get the treatment they needed.

Labour’s trade union ‘link’ is the living and breathing embodiment of that solidarity.

That is why so many Labour MPs, myself included, have been so proud to stand with rail workers on picket lines during this summer’s rail strikes, and will do likewise in the forthcoming postal dispute.

With the Tories deliberately seeking a battle with the unions and in-work poverty rife during an ever-worsening cost of living crisis, it would have been a dereliction of duty not to do so.

Like many of my colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party, I see it as a fundamental part of my job to stand with these workers, many of whom are forced to rely on foodbanks to survive.

To quote the words of Tom Joad, the hero of John Steinbeck’s timeless dustbowl classic Grapes of Wrath, to “be wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat”.

Likewise, it’s pivotal to my role as a Labour MP to be a voice in parliament for these workers and to promote legislation that will extend employment rights, and deliver a dignified standard of living.

The Labour-union link meant that a year ago the Shadow Cabinet adopted an Employment Rights Green Paper, setting out a New Deal for Working People, which would tackle job insecurity and strengthen our unions.

As the then Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights, I was proud to have worked closely with unions to deliver this prospectus for government.

The Green Paper provides the sound basis and clear policy position on employment rights, protections and fair pay agreements across all sectors, founded on giving workers that real and collective voice through their trades unions.

Trade union money is the cleanest in politics, and Labour should not be ashamed of declaring it because our party was set up precisely to represent the interests of workers.

It’s in stark contrast to the murky and opaque funding of the Tory party, which has accepted millions of pounds in donations from Russian oligarchs.

We are proud that Labour’s funding comes from the trade union movement, which is blessed with a brilliant new generation of general secretaries.

Sharon Graham has had a truly inspirational first year as general secretary of Unite, with industrial successes for bus drivers, construction workers, and airport employees.

Meanwhile, GMB general secretary Gary Smith and Unison leader Christina McAnea, have secured significant advances for their members across the public and private sectors.While in respective disputes over pay and conditons, Mick Lynch, the General Secretary of the RMT, Dave Ward of CWU, and Mark Serwotka of PCS, have articulated the case for their members so clearly and courageously.

At the same time, the leaders of the main affiliated unions have quite rightly talked about their focus being on their members’ immediate workplace interests and not so markedly on the political fortunes of the Labour Party, but they are, and simply have to be, two sides of the same coin.

Unions must have a strong voice in parliament, through the selection of their members, the key workers from the Covid crisis, as Labour parliamentary candidates in winnable seats.

In just over a fortnight’s time, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) gathers for its annual conference, having rightly called for the minimum wage to rise to £15 an hour “as soon as possible”.

While the TUC itself is not affiliated to Labour, many of its member unions are, while others enjoy close working links with the party.

With the Tories set to declare war on workers, with threats from leadership contest frontrunner Liz Truss to ban strikes, the link between the industrial and political wings of the labour movement has never been more critical.

At Labour conference in Liverpool, the party leadership must ensure that the unions, the basic defence organisations of workers against attacks from the Tory government and employers, remain central to shaping the policy platform that the party fights the next election on.

Andy McDonald is the former Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights and Protections.