RMT said leaving the EU would improve workers' rights.

 

The sackings at P&O are just the latest of a number of fire and rehire disputes. They're occurring with monotonous regularity in Britain. The response from the Tory government is always the same - shocked and appalled, outraged, it's bad business practice, platitudes. Yet, they've blocked attempts to ban the practice of 'fire and rehire' to cut worker's pay and conditions, which is perfectly legal in this country. So what does that tell you? Boris Johnson said leaving the E.U. would improve worker's rights and the RMT union said it would improve the pay and conditions of worker's.  

It doesn't seem to have occurred to Mick Cash and the RMT that whether we remain in the EU or leave, Britain would still have a capitalist market system. Brexit always was a right wing project which was about deregulating the British economy to undercut our European neighbours and competitors, and to give Britain a competitive edge. 'Britannia Unchained', a race to the bottom. Apart from the RMT, did anybody seriously believe that leaving the E.U. would end the attack on worker's rights and improve pay and conditions. It's laughable! Cameron's Tory government were 100% behind TTIP and the neo liberal agenda. The Tories have been attacking worker's rights for decades and Labour never repealed most of it. Secondary industrial action (strikes in solidarity with other worker's) are illegal in this country as well as general strikes. The UK has some of the strictest anti union laws in the developed world and you can't blame that on the E.U.

Its been noted that the practice of fire and rehire is illegal in France, Spain, and Ireland, which are all E.U. countries. If the P&O worker's would have occupied those ferries, they would have been in a much stronger position. Now, they're bringing in agency worker's from Eastern Europe, to replace them, working for as little as £2.60 an hour. You can expect more of this and you can't blame it on the E.U. It's happening in Brexit Britain.