Germany has a version of workers control where workers sit on the board of big firms, have voting rights and compose half of the supervisory boards of large companies, France also has a weaker version of this. In Britain there is nothing.
At a time when the trade unions were strong, a government report (Bullock Report 1977) was produced that would have put workers on the board of big firms, with voting rights; this was rejected by most of the trade unions. They preferred to defend workers’ rights from the outside and let managers manage. Groups like the Communist Party influential at the time also rejected it because they thought this was an accommodation with capitalism, while right wing trade unionists also insisted on ‘management’s right to manage’.
It can be argued that having mandatory workers on boards would have meant a stronger fight against the closures of British industry started by Thatcher. This trade union attitude of not wanting to be in charge has not changed today, although we note approvingly the 2013 GMB motion on UK Industrial Policy submitted by NW B84 and the publications initiated by the TUC such as Workers on Board by Janet Williamson.
The Workers Party of Britain is fully committed to exploring and co-ordinating various and innovative demands for workers control as part of the struggle for working-class power in tandem with the ongoing struggles for better pay and conditions. In power, we would take the system that is most effective in ensuring increased workers control and most effective in maintaining the entrepreneurial innovation necessary to solve social and community problems and legislate for its implementation.
We have made a firm commitment already to the right of workers and managers (acting strictly under the direction of worker representatives) to have first right to the acquisition of companies and their assets that otherwise would be closed or distributed to shareholders where the company is either intended to be sold to a foreign owner or to be closed in order to export production overseas.
This commitment to worker participation may not apply to small or most medium-sized businesses (unless they are subsidiaries of larger firms) but medium-sized businesses can expect to see existing workers’ rights not merely maintained but, in many cases, extended.
The public sector represents a different case but the Workers Party of Britain will be developing a strategy for ensuring a greater voice for democratised trades unions in ensuring the maintenance of public services and making public services more effective.
Julie Lowe 