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The Rt. Hon. Patricia HewittAEEU Conference |
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| CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY I'm delighted to be here today. I remember some ten years ago talking to Bill Jordan - then your President - about the need for more flexible working hours. He was very clear about what your members - men and women - alike wanted. As Bill said: "We are not talking about 10 minutes off a day. We are looking for the long weekend." And you succeeded in many companies in winning shorter working hours for your members - the 4.5 day week, the 9 day fortnight - delivering higher productivity for the firm, and a better quality of life for people. Your union was one of the first to see that the old system of confrontation between workers and managers could be replaced by a new system of partnership. Today for example, you are pioneering projects like the one at ALSTOM in Lincoln where you have worked with the company and local partners to establish an Engineering Training Centre. That's good for ALSTOM and it's good for your members. That's why I'm particularly pleased to be here as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and the new Minister for Women. I want to pay particular tribute to my predecessor Stephen Byers. I couldn't have hoped for a more exciting Cabinet post - running a Department with such a vital role for business, for employees, for consumers and families. In all of these areas our task is to meet the challenges of change. And to do so through partnership. On my way to Blackpool today I visited Webb Dynamics, a textile company in Bolton. They showed me how they had transformed themselves from traditional textiles to a leading edge manufacturer of technical textiles, including breathable performance fabrics. They are world-beaters. The workers at Webb Dynamics are also the co-owners of the firm. Meeting them confirmed something that has struck me on many other occasions as I have visited high-tech manufacturing firms all round the country. Too many people - and sadly, too many journalists and City analysts - still seem to believe that there is something called a 'new economy' and something called an 'old economy'. They believe that only the 'new economy' - dot.coms, internet based companies and all that - has a future; and that the 'old economy' - manufacturing industries - are doomed to decline and death. That is profoundly wrong. The reality is that new technologies are transforming every product and service, every part of the production process and every sector of the economy. They are transforming agriculture - a pre-industrial sector - as well as manufacturing industry itself. As we move into the knowledge-driven economy, manufacturing does not disappear. Quite the reverse. Instead, the knowledge content of manufactured products increases - and the demands made on the knowledge of manufacturing workers with it. Take an example of motor manufacturing. 70% of the value of a modern luxury car is now in the intangibles - the design and styling, the computing and communications power, the intelligence contained in the manufactured product. In other words, there aren't two economies, there is one economy - all of it facing the twin challenges of globalisation and increasing the speed of change. Change at this speed is desperately unsettling for individuals, families and communities. I have seen in my own constituency in Leicester - once the richest city in Europe - the devastation caused by the decline of the traditional manufacturing industries like textiles. Some of the thousands of job losses in textiles are the results of intense foreign competition, pressures in the high street, and - in some cases - years of under-investment and weak management. For many companies exporting to the Euro-zone, the last straw is the weakness of the Euro against sterling. That is one reason why we are in favour of the principle of joining the single currency, and why we will conduct an assessment of the five economic tests within the first two years of this Parliament. We will not protect our people and our communities by pretending, like Canute's courtiers, that we can hold back the waves of change. I agree with the trade union official who said 'It's not the technology I fear. It's the old. That will cost us our jobs.' So we cannot wave a magic wand. If a company is losing money, there comes a point when it can no longer stay in business. Government cannot and should not support lame duck industries or try to protect them from international competition. That does not mean we will walk away. Our task is to help UK business and UK workers get to the future first. There are many ways in which we must do so. In this country we have great talent, great ideas and a tradition of great engineering. Just before Christmas I attended a showcase organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. I met Dr David Gow who has created a revolutionary artificial hand - known as Prodigits. This is the world's first artificial limb which allows fingers to move individually, replicating the human hand. Jenny - one of the children involved in trials was for the first time able to open doors in school with one hand and carry her school bag at the same with the other hand. It's hoped that the results of these trials will help generate funding to develop this as a product. All too often in the past we've had things invented in Britain but manufactured abroad. Our task now is to ensure that "invented in Britain" becomes "made in Britain". We can do that by: Investing in scientific excellence and translating research into products and jobs of the future. Investing in the skills people need for life long careers. There is no such thing as a job for life but there can be employability for life. Now is the time for the unions to look forward and redefine their role for the 21st century. Trade unions have a key role to play in helping their members become more employable in increasing their opportunities and strengthening their security in a changing world. Many unions, like the AEEU already do this. In many sectors, businesses provide senior management with comprehensive support services when they face redundancy as a result of restructuring. Companies will pay for their executives to receive advice, retraining, and help in finding work. But these opportunities are often not available to the majority of the workforce. Trade Unions have an increasing role to play in helping their members to move into new jobs and develop new skills. We need to find flexible ways of working which support families and business and increase the pool of talent. Provide a world class infrastructure and ensuring competitive broadband services are available in every part of the country. We also must work with Regional Development Agencies as the power houses of our regional economies. I'm delighted RDAs are part of my Department because they are a crucial part of our mission for every region to fulfil its full potential. Over the coming months I will be setting out in more detail our strategy for raising productivity and doing so in partnership. One of the ways my Department helps businesses is by providing financial support to business. Business support is a vital part of DTI activity. We spend around £1 billion a year, delivered direct to firms or through intermediaries such as Business Links. At present, I believe these schemes are too fragmented. Some are long standing schemes which have been set up to meet local or industry needs. Others are newer, and take advantage of newer delivery channels such as RDAs and Business Links. All serve a useful purpose. But the result is that we have too many inconsistent and overlapping schemes. This is not good value for money, and is confusing for business. I believe we need a more coherent and rational approach. I am therefore setting in hand an urgent review of my Department's business support schemes. As part of this, we will be consulting our stakeholders and customers to see how they believe our business support could be better focussed. The first strand of this review will focus on industrial support and manufacturing, the second on wider business support. I plan to announce the preliminary results of this initial review in the Summer. I agree with John Monks when he said yesterday that we have to raise our game in manufacturing. In our first term our priority was economic stability and employment. In our second term our economic challenge is enterprise and productivity. It was Britain that led the world into the first industrial revolution. Now we are determined that Britain should be a leader in the global knowledge driven economy. Like John and Ken I believe we should work together in partnership and I look forward to working with you. |
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Other speeches by The Rt. Hon. Patricia Hewitt
(the following are available from the archive) |
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