A letter from Richard Howitt MEP
I am asking
all Unite members in the East of England to vote Labour on Thursday
June 4, as an active member of the Unite Group of Labour Euro MPs
and having worked closely with the union throughout the past five
years.
I am deeply proud to have campaigned successfully with the union
to:-
- Protect car industry jobs in Luton and Basildon- challenging
General Motors over future plans for IBC Vans in Luton; campaigning
for better redundancy terms when component supplier Peguform closed
also in Luton; and backing European investment in new generations
of environmentally friendly cars in order to help protect jobs at
Ford’s European research headquarters at Dunton near
Basildon.
- Protect port industry jobs at Tilbury, Felixstowe, Harwich and
Great Yarmouth- successfully campaigning with dock workers to
defeat proposals in the European Parliament which would have forced
port authorities to ‘contract out’ jobs threatening jobs and
preventing new investment.
- Support financial services workers hit by the ‘credit crunch’ –
working with the union to promote workers’ representation in new
regulatory bodies overseeing banks and insurance
companies.
- Campaigning for equal treatment of workers and against
‘off-shoring’ of jobs from Norwich, Cambridge and Harwich -
campaigning with the union to retain local jobs at Norwich Union
(Aviva), Cambridge University Press and at the Port of
Harwich.
- Support vulnerable workers in agriculture and food-processing
jobs- campaigning with the union where bird 'flu hit Bernard
Mathews jobs in Norfolk and Suffolk, launching European funded
training for the region’s agricultural workers and regularly
supporting the Burston Rally proudly organised each September by
the union.
- Backing jobs for disabled people in Southend, Wisbech and
Norwich- challenging REMPLOY’s restructuring plan and arguing for
use of European ‘procurement’ rules to guarantee future work for
the company.
- Backing action to create new jobs in manufacturing in
Chelmsford and Stevenage- supporting expansion plan at E2V in
Chelmsford winning a Queen’s Award for Exports, and successfully
supporting European funding for the EU’s new global positioning
system which is being partly manufactured at Astrium in
Stevenage.
- Supporting the union at times of industrial dispute- opposing
‘union-busters’ brought in by Kettle Chips, speaking out for better
redundancy terms for Visteon workers in Basildon and for Bowater
workers made redundant in Norwich; campaigning successfully to
protect pension rights for T-Mobile workers in Borehamwood.
- And consistently supporting employment rights in European
Parliament votes- including successfully helping to overturn a
threat to terms and conditions in Europe’s draft law for a single
market in services; winning the campaign for an EU law for equal
treatment of temporary agency workers; and strengthening the right
for information and consultation of workers in multicultural
companies.
Only a Labour vote on Thursday June 4 will re-elect me and elect
fellow labour Euro MPs to continue this work in the future. I ask
for your support.
Richard Howitt MEP
Labour Member of the European Parliament for the East of
England
UNITE Group of Labour MEPs
