The trade union Unite’s policy conference votes to support exploration of Basic Income

At its policy conference on the 11th July, Britain’s larges trade union, Unite, voted to support the exploration of Basic Income. The resolution was as follows:

Basic Income

Conference notes the growing crisis of low pay, in work poverty and precarity in a labour market increasingly characterised by casualised forms of employment that offer low pay, zero hours contracts and no long-term security. Conference further notes the evident inability of our bureaucratically costly social security system, with its dependence on means-testing and frequent arbitrary sanction, to provide an adequate income floor. Conference believes that a Basic Income, an unconditional, non-withdrawable income paid to everyone paid to everyone, has the potential to offer genuine social security to all while boosting the economy and creating jobs. Conference welcomes the ongoing exploration of the concept of a Basic Income by the think-tank Compass, the innovation charity Nesta, the Royal Society of Arts, and others; further welcomes the planned practical experiments in Finland and Utrecht, Netherlands. Conference calls upon the union to actively campaign for a Universal Basic Income and eradicate poverty for all.

For further details, see the post on the BIEN website.

Footnotes