Brexit Will Lower Wages
Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist
It has surprised the naïve that in the last two weeks Tory ministers have been lining up to assure employers that there will be no reduction in the flow of immigrant workers into
the UK after Brexit.
There are two things that infuriate me about the “left wing” argument that EU immigration lowers wages in the UK through importing labour. Firstly it is not left wing at all, it is narrowly nationalist and founded on the protectionist premise that the condition of the worker in say Poland – who would benefit both from opportunities in the UK and from international labour competition elevating wages there – does not matter. The “left wing” proponents of the protected national labour market are actually just ill-disguised racists.
The second criticism of these “left-wing” people is that they are extremely stupid. Anybody who believes that the plutocrat paymasters of UKIP, the Tories and the corporate press, supported Brexit in order to raise wages, is certifiable.
That is why the Tories are making plain there will be no reduction in the labour supply from the EU. That will keep coming. But there will be one essential difference.
EU workers will no longer be in the UK as fellow EU citizens with exactly the same rights as UK EU citizens. In future, the EU workers will be here on work visas, probably two or five year renewable. These will be awarded through sponsorship by their employer. That will put them at the absolute mercy of employers and make them terrified of complaint or even standing against gross abuse and illegality. The conditions at the Sports Direct warehouse will seem good compared to what is coming in workplaces throughout the UK, once people like Mike Ashley can simply have “troublemakers” instantly deported.
All workers will of course lose more formal rights and protections, like the maximum working week and strict health and safety regulation. EU citizens in the UK will also lose the citizen’s right of address by political participation and voting.
Brexit will lower wages. It will be the biggest license to exploit ever handed back to predatory capitalists, at a time when the wealth gap between the super rich and the poor is at its widest, and notions of social responsibility among the wealthy at their weakest.
Brexit is a disaster for the working woman and man. Yet so many of the so-called “left” are too blind to see it.
The post Brexit Will Lower Wages appeared first on Craig Murray.
Source: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/02/brexit-will-lower-wages/
Bursting your bubble.
Dear Craig Murray,
You have never actually worked, yes this is a shock to hear. Most of your life you have either been in academia or paid at such a level in the civil service you hardly notice the plebs you claim to hear other than as a national statistic or news item.
We plebs cannot lose rights leaving the EU, they are not EU laws but British laws made after receiving a directive. The laws are not EUropean laws.
Wages cannot fall legally below the minimum wage, what has happened is that importing a surplus of Labor and despite allowing subcontracting has allowed illegal and immoral practices to become the norm, such as multi tiering to prevent equal pay, the minimum wage is still slowly rising, like or no like. Also Like or no like automation is coming in during the next 15 years which will simply wipe out the need for most civil servants, fruit pickers, drivers even lawyers and doctors. There will be social change unheard of since the Industrial revolution knocking out your highly paid positions. All these imported people are surplus and are here for the sole reason that their votes and remittances were critical to keep EUtopia going.
Nobody unless they were brainwashed loons wanted job competition but importing millions into the UK since entering the EU made it happen, Only EU retards wanted membership at any cost since they had no confidence in their own nation. Socialists because of Marxist dogma allowed themselves to be used to create a Socialist Europe which was anything but, it was a crony capitalist club designed by the US to act as a bulwark to the Soviet Union by keeping the old world order in power and stable. You were in Government, a Labour supporter and Labour helped merchandise government with corporatism, private debts and affordable welfare bribes for special interest groups in social engineering. Meanwhile for the sake of EU membership it abandoned clause 4 and all national ownership of industry where instead of relying on courts where citizens must pay fees to get fair and equal treatment, they made it happen by simply owning the sector. Yes before EUtopia the majority of industry in the UK paid good wages, fair conditions and employees were able to simply walk out and be hired on the next day without the need for references – health and safety was optional but life was a risk.
You as part of Government have some responsibility for its actions, as a Labour supporter did nothing to reverse clause 4, you could have done something and been fired.