Chair: Jason Turvey Vice Chair: Andy Hudd
The following statement was endorsed by the Trade Union Group of the Workers Party of Britain at their meeting Friday 28 January 2022.
The Workers Party of Britain recognises the benefits provided by the vaccination programme but is opposed to the mandatory use of identity card documents, or digital applications, linked to personal medical information in this instance Covid status, either by proof of vaccination or recent test result.
Workers in the care industry have already been legally obliged to be double-jabbed to continue their employment and, in the coming months, thousands of workers in the NHS and other employers will also be obliged to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to continue their employment.
The Trade Union Group believes that the issue of vaccine passports, and the use of Covid-19 vaccines generally, is a ‘wedge issue’ designed to divide the working class. The ruling class have taken to the media in countries across the world to attack the unvaccinated and to blame them for the continuance of this pandemic and the brutal restrictions that they have imposed on their populations.
The Trade Union Group further believes that the British trade union movement has, in general, failed to defend the principle of bodily autonomy of workers and that their inactions will serve only to disenfranchise workers, drive workers away from trade unions and trade unionism and do serious long-term harm to the movement.
We stand shoulder to shoulder with our comrades across the working class and offer our full support, as well as every possible assistance, to workers who are victimised and persecuted by their employers for exercising their absolute right to decline the Covid-19 vaccine.