As Corbyn calls on young supporters to join unions, unions must prove their worth

The current tumult in Britain presents them with an opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated

Jeremy Corbyn wants more people to join unions (Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn attacking “unscrupulous” bosses for using technology to undermine workers’ rights while railing against the exploitation endemic to the “gig” economy at the TUC might be playing to the gallery, but that doesn’t undermine the truth of what he says.

Mr Corbyn, however, also wants his legion of young supporters, who have sometimes been guilty of treating the 68-year-old politician like a rock star in a way that isn’t altogether healthy, to do something about it themselves.

While a Labour Government can help them by reforming employment laws in their favour, they need to get on their bikes and join their local unions.

He’s right about that too.

Of course, that means union subs, and subs cost money, and money is tight for millions of people in modern Britain, young people in particular.

But they pay for services. Subs aren’t all that different to insurance premiums that fund a policy that you can call upon if you get in a jam. It’s just that the equivalent of a union’s claims department, the people who are employed, or who volunteer, to help members, tend to be a lot more understanding and sympathetic than an insurance company’s claims department.

It goes beyond what unions offer individuals, however.

An increase in their strength and influence might help an economy that is struggling.

An increase in union recognition, leading to more collectively bargained wage settlements, and the re-emergnece of annual pay rounds, which have all but evaporated in some places, might help to reverse a decline in the amount of the UK’s GDP being spent on wages.

Last week's report from the Institute for Public Policy Research’s Commission on Economic Justice found that had fallen to 73 per cent, the lowest since the Second World War. Stronger unions, it said, might assist with reversing the decline.

The issue of wages undershooting inflation (which hit a joint five year high of 2.9 per cent in August), and the falling proportion of GDP being spent on them, will not immediately be addressed by an army of youthful Corbyn fans signing on the dotted line. But their support wouldn’t hurt.

However, again, while, as Mr Corbyn notes, young people need to do their part in facilitating change, unions have to do theirs.

The characterisation of their bosses in the right wing media as “dinosaurs” has never been fair.

On the ground, where they operate, they make compromises and deals, while the TUC has been able to make common cause with business groups on a number of issues.

As well as the traditional red meat, such as Unite's Len McClusky calling for strikes as he did yesterday, that is a message its members would do well to get across, in addition to their better promoting the services they provide.

The technology that Mr Corbyn talked of, it is available for their use too. Not all of them are utilising it as well as they might be to promote their message. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady understands that, making note of it in the interview I conducted with her last week.

Anecdotally I’ve seen signs of some of her members taking the message on board, stepping up their activity on social media for example, and making use of memes. More need to follow, however.

Every big British union should have a head of social media on its staff.

Their membership has been in decline for too long. The increasing political consciousness among the young, partly stoked by a Brexit they opposed, the current tumult in British society, it presents them with a unique opportunity to change that.

They should grasp it because it’s unlikely to be repeated.