Trade unions have hit back at the leader of the country's biggest organisation for branding them as "increasingly irrevelant".

Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, sparked anger when he said workers were losing interest because too many union leaders had outdated notions of the world of work.

He told hundreds of businessmen and women at a dinner in Glasgow that fewer workers needed to be in a union because rising skill levels were making people less vulnerable to exploitation.

Workers were "perplexed" by the way union officials competed to be more militant than each other to attract new members, he claimed.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said: "Digby Jones ought to come and join the real world, where we are all working harder for longer. Modern workers need union representation more than ever and any worker in Britain can tell you they face a stack of workplace issues.

"Would Jones seriously tell a victim of sex discrimination that all they need to do to avoid exploitation is to be 'adaptable'?

"If trade unions were irrelevant I doubt the Director of the CBI would be devoting half his speech to attacking us. The truth is unions are in workplaces recruiting more members and business see any union expansion as a threat.

"Jones cannot grasp the fact that unions want a strong economy with better opportunities for workers, which is why we argue for more support for industry and why we have initiated union learning schemes in thousands of workplaces."

Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, said: "Trade unions will always be relevant as long as there is Digby Jones."

While a TUC spokesman said; "It's disappointing to see Digby Jones go back to the rhetoric of the Thatcher years.

"That is not the way that business will be taken seriously. Without unions to stand up for people at work Britain would be a much less fair society, pensions would be on their way out - except in the boardroom - and many more people would be injured or die at work every year."

Mr Jones gave his speech ahead of the TUC Congress in just over a week's time.

He told the audience: "When there were millions of unskilled workers, vulnerable to exploitation, unions were essential to fight their corner.

"But when the labour market is stuffed full of people with a skill, even if not that advanced, unions stuck in the mindset of yesterday's ideology become less relevant.

"The only protection people need in a tight labour market with skills shortages is to be so adaptable, trained and valuable that no employer would dare let them go or treat them badly.

"With unions representing just 19% of the private sector workforce, they become increasingly irrelevant every day."

Mr Jones said union calls for a return of the secondary picketing that helped label the country the sick man of Europe, proved that they "never learn."

He also accused unions of seeking to inhibit personal choice, destroy flexibility in the workplace and discouraging overseas investment.

"They threaten to tear up negotiated and signed no-strike agreements. After taking what's on offer from a Labour party they help pay for, still they go back the next day with further demands."

Mr Jones said unions faced a stark choice: "Either recognise the competitive demands of the 21st century, reform, put training as your top priority and help the nation win the battle for competitiveness. Or wither on the vine of growing irrelevancy."

Friday September 03, 2004