Great Britain: trade unions declare their intentions for the Brexit referendum

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) along with the three largest unions (Unite, UNISON, GMB) have declared their intention to use their resources to back a ‘yes’ vote in the Britain’s 23 June referendum on continued membership of the European Union (EU). In addition a number of smaller unions including the construction union UCATT, the Musicians’ Union, the FBU fire fighters’ union, and the transport TSSA union have also declared their opposition to leaving the EU. By contrast, only three unions so far – the ASLEF and RMT specialist transport unions and BFAWU bakers’ union – have stated they will campaign to leave the EU.
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All the unions declaring support for ‘Yes’ vote have made their support conditional on a return of the social dimension of the EU so that the advance of neo-liberalism and deregulation is halted and reversed. Moreover, they fear that if Britain was to leave the EU a number of workers’ rights would be lost as the political forces looking to ‘leave’ also favour ending various social rights (parental leave, paid holidays, protection for part-timers, collective consultation on redundancies, and lim

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