Interestingly, I'm currently reading a book on the history of austerity and the author shows how worker councils were a thing in the UK during and immediately after WW1; however, austerity was put in place to systematically prioritize capital and the minority capital class over working class people. Lest that sound slightly conspiratorial the author cites specific memos and comments from the Treasury at the time that make that point explicit. They simply insisted that working class would have to "sacrifice" so that the system of capital could be restored. The interests of capital was always prioritized; it was all that mattered. People were expected to be more productive, consume less, and earn less.
Depressingly, Brexit has just caused the same thing...
The old page [0] about EU-mandated law regarding Works Councils now says "The Brexit transition period has ended and new rules on participating in a European Works Council now apply. This page is currently out of date."
The new page [1] says: "Only people employed in EEA countries can ask their employer to set up an EWC.
If you are employed in the UK you cannot ask for one to be set up"
:(
(I'm not actually sure if this was an intentional change or just an accidental side-effect of the UK leaving the EEA [2], but the Tories hardly deserve the benefit of the doubt regarding intent when it comes to a pro-capital anti-workers change, and they could easily just extend the old bill to cover "EEA or UK" rather than "only EEA" if it wasn't wanted...)
It's very well written and the research into the actual memoranda from the period she is discussing is very eye-opening. It is also, unfortunately, quite depressing.
