“It’s clear that the Green Party and the trade union movement are very strongly aligned in our vision for what needs to change in the UK”
The former Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer has said that the Green Party has ‘better aligned values’ with trade unions than the Labour Party.
Denyer made the comments during an interview with Left Foot Forward at this year’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Brighton. Denyer was chairing what Left Foot Forward understands is the first ever Green Party hosted fringe at Trades Union Congress.
At the fringe, Denyer talked about her ‘Energy Jobs Bill’ – a private members bill she has submitted in the House of Commons. She told Left Foot Forward “it calls on the government to have a proper timescale for the transition from oil and gas and ensuring it is the oil and gas companies that are providing the financial support to workers to transition to a green economy. So that includes a furlough-style scheme to provide financial support as people are switching from one sector to another and a funded training package. It calls on GB Energy’s investments to support British jobs because currently a large proportion of the materials in offshore windfarms are made overseas.”
When asked directly what the Green Party had to offer the trade union movement, Denyer told Left Foot Forward it had: “Better aligned values than the Labour Party”, going on to add: “It’s clear that the Green Party and the trade union movement are very strongly aligned in our vision for what needs to change in the UK. A lot of the conversations I’ve been having have been around [the] wealth tax, which is obviously something that we in the Green Party have been banging on about for a long time, but it’s starting to get into the mainstream now.”
Later in the interview, Denyer said: “The overlap between active trade union organisers and Greens is getting stronger and stronger all the time, and that’s because we’ve got a similar vision for what the UK could be with the right policies.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Matthew Philip Long – Creative Commons
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