Some Trade Unions are beginning to realise the benefit of being free of the constraints placed upon the UK by the EU
For example, the recent takeover of Opel/ Vauxhall by the French company PSA once would have been judged ‘a disaster’ because of expected closures and job losses:
- Now, the local Labour MP, Kelvin Hopkins, calls it ‘a positive development’ as long as the UK ends its dependence on importing motor vehicle products and makes them at home instead
- And John Cooper, a UNITE leader, says: “If PSA want to sell cars in the UK, they’ll have to build cars in the UK” – something that could not be said under the current EU freedom of movement of goods agreement
- The two expect that car manufacturing will continue in the UK, a home component supply chain will need to be built and more skilled jobs will be created – and none of this would be possible if the UK were to remain in the single market
And the current reliance of some UK sectors on cheap labour from the EU will be disrupted, to the advantage of both those sectors and UK workers
For example, UK agriculture and its relative slow progress to mechanisation:
- Minette Batters, Deputy President of the National Farmers Union, accepts that such labour reduces the incentive for UK farmers to invest in new equipment/ robots/ automation
- However, once out of the EU, this labour supply will dry up, UK wage levels rise, UK farmers invest in more machinery, productivity increase, output volumes rise whilst unit costs and so prices fall, sales thus rise and so job numbers rise
- It’s win win for home farmers and workers
Brexit will thus enable the UK to enjoy a major hike towards its long term aim of being a high-productivity, high-wage, high-skill economy