WALES cannot afford to risk losing the jobs and worker’s rights provided by the EU.

There are around 150,000 jobs in Wales depending on EU trade and more than 450 firms from other Member States have bases in Wales, providing more than 50,000 jobs. If these companies could not export their products tariff free to the EU they would invest elsewhere.

EU legislation has also given workers health and safety protection, paid holidays, and equal rights for part-time workers. It has ensured protection against discrimination and harassment at work, the right to reasonable working hours and the right to maternity and paternity leave.

The Tory right and UKIP want to leave the EU in order to deny Welsh workers their rights. Indeed, you only have to look at some of the policies and statements from UKIP to see that this is the case. They want to scrap maternity pay in SMES, they want to privatise the NHS and one of them even said that public sector workers and the unemployed should not be allowed to vote.

We however share an ambitious vision to develop a strong economy and create positive, well-paid jobs for people in Wales. We want prosperity and fairness.

That’s why we will all be campaigning with a positive message about the EU over the coming months. We simply cannot afford not to.

Welsh MEP Derek Vaughan, Unite Wales, Unison, GMB, Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW).

DEREK VAUGHAN MEP

4th Floor

Transport House

1 Cathedral Road

Cardiff