CONGRESS pledged its support for a referendum on the proposed EU treaty in a strongly worded statement on Europe on Wednesday.
The statement "regrets the fact" that the House of Commons chose not to hold one and agrees that, if the opportunity arose, the STUC would "campaign and lobby in line with this view."
STUC general council member Jackson Cullinane said that it had taken account of the views of affiliated unions in recent conferences and at last year's TUC.
"We recognise the need to take action and campaign up to and beyond adoption of the treaty," Mr Cullinane said.
He argued that there were only three discernible differences between the treaty and the orginal neoliberal constitution, which had to be abandonded.
"One, the title has changed. Two, the proposed foreign minister is to be called something else. And three, the trappings of state - the flag, the national anthem and so on - have gone.
"But what we have left is of deep concern to this movement," he said.
"We have seen recently what the shift of democratic decision-making and power to the unelected European Court of Justice could mean, with the judgements in the Vaxholm and Viking cases."
While these decisions recognise the right to strike, they prioritise the employer's right to "establishment."
This makes it illegal for unions to take industrial action to defend collective bargaining agreements when a firm from another country seeks to employ workers on inferior conditions.
"It is trade unions and the left that are arguing for a vote on the treaty," Mr Cullinane argued.
"We should have a say on the direction of Europe, how our democracy is to develop and how our rights can be upheld."
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