Keir Starmer has promised to use public procurement to help create “unionised jobs” in the UK, after being pressed by a striking GMB member from Amazon’s Coventry warehouse.
Speaking at the GMB’s annual congress in Brighton, the Labour leader was warmly applauded when he backed calls for Amazon to recognise the union in Coventry, calling it a “fantastic campaign”.
Citing analysis carried out for the union that showed the web company earned £222m from government and other public sector contracts last year, GMB member Garfield Hylton asked Starmer: “What will a Labour government do to stop this flow of money to Amazon if they continue to refuse recognition of the workers’ union?”
Starmer replied: “I think the point you make about contracts is really important. It’s not a free-for-all. There’s lots of public money tied up in procurement, and an incoming Labour government is entitled to say, ‘what’s the terms and conditions?’
“There’s a framework for public procurement, at the heart of which is dignity and respect, and we expect to see unionised jobs, and support unionised industries.”
The Labour leader repeatedly stressed his pro-union credentials, as he addressed GMB members.
“Together, we have a golden opportunity to shape the future to the interests of working people, firmly and decisively,” Starmer said. “The rest of the world is moving on from the outdated arguments our opponents provide. Put simply, people aren’t going to take it any more.”
He said Labour’s £28bn-a-year green investment pledge – one of its key economic policies – would create, “good, union jobs” in the UK.
“Like President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), our green prosperity plan is our plan for growth, and because we’re Labour, it is a plan for working people, their jobs and their salaries,” he said, adding there would be “incentives in contracts” to ensure jobs throughout the supply chain are created in the UK.
Joe Biden’s US administration has placed conditions on billions of dollars’ worth of investment in green energy under the IRA. Firms involved have to pay the “prevailing wage,” in the relevant sector – rather than using cheap labour to undercut rivals – and make use of apprentices.
The GMB has been urging Labour to attach pro-worker conditions to new government contracts, across the economy.
The research carried out for the union by consultants Tussell shows the government spent a total of £222m with Amazon in 2022 – most of it with Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing subsidiary.
Over the past five years, central and local government has spent £684m on contracts with Amazon and its subsidiaries, according to Tussell’s analysis.
Amazon has declined a formal request for union recognition from the GMB at the company’s Coventry warehouse, known as BHX4, where staff have been involved in the first UK strike action against the firm since January, demanding pay of £15 an hour.
An Amazon spokesperson said it respected its employees’ rights to join or not join a union, adding: “Amazon recognises that its status as a supplier to the public sector is a privilege which has to continually be re-earned through the quality of our services and the value for money that we bring for UK taxpayers. We know they will only remain customers for as long as we are able to deliver on both of those things.”
Gary Smith, the GMB’s general secretary, said: “These [government contracts] are extraordinary sums of money, when Amazon workers are having to go on strike for decent pay.
“If this amount of taxpayer cash is spent on a private company, the contract must come with guarantees on worker pay, health and safety and their right to be represented by a formally recognised trade union.”
The GMB’s request for recognition in Coventry has been passed to the independent Central Arbitration Committee, which could grant statutory recognition if it judges that most workers support the idea.
Starmer’s charm offensive in Brighton comes amid a rift with the GMB over energy policy. Smith has claimed that Labour has “got it wrong” in declining to license new fossil fuel exploration in the North Sea.
The Labour leader was received enthusiastically by delegates, however, as he set out his party’s pro-worker policies, including a new “fair pay agreement” in social care; expanded parental leave; an end to fire-and-rehire; and full employment rights on day one of a new job.
He sought to assuage fears over what Smith has called a “cliff-edge” in the North Sea energy industry, saying a Labour government would seize the opportunity to create new, clean energy jobs.
“What I will never let happen is what happened in coalmining, where an industry came to an end and nobody had planned for the future – and we’re still living with the consequences,” he said.
