Anti-union laws

Time to organise

Last week the Labour Party set up a petition against the Trade Union Bill which gathered 400,000 signatures in just a few days. There is a mood to fight the Trade Union Bill, which should be mobilised. Campaigners with the London Right to Strike group meet today (Tuesday 22 September) to plan their next protest and street stalls. We encourage activists around the country to do the same. On Saturday 3 October, Right to Strike will hold an open steering committee meeting in Manchester, we invite all branches who have affiliated to the campaign to come but the meeting will also be open to all...

Fight for the right to strike

On Monday 14 September the Trade Union Bill had its second reading in parliament, and passed by 317 votes to 284. This is not the end of the struggle against the bill. It is time for the labour movement to pick itself up and start organising against the bill. As the bill was being debated in Parliament on Monday, trade unionists gathered outside to protest. The protest, called at short notice by Ian Hodson, National President of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU), and supported by Right to Strike, Unite the Resistance and the National Shop Stewards Network, was attended by over...

Fight for the right to strike

On 6 August the government confirmed that 3.8 million public sector workers will lose the right to have their trade union subscriptions automatically deducted from their pay packet. Ending “check-off”, already applied to parts of the civil service, is a calculated move by the government to put unions in a financially precarious position. Whilst it may be better in the long run for unions to have their dues-collecting system far from the reach of government interference, the process of transferring workers to direct debit is long and unions may suffer a dip in income in that process. This is...

IDS on your bike, we deserve the right to strike!

On Saturday 8 August, more than 15 activists with Right to Strike took a trip to Chingford to serve Iain Duncan Smith with a high court injunction. Tories and bosses are so keen to take high court injunctions out against our democratically decided strikes that we thought we’d give them a taste of their own medicine. The Tories are proposing that unions in key sectors must get 40% of their members to vote yes in a ballot (not just of those that vote) to have a legal strike. Turns out Iain Duncan Smith only got elected on 31% of the electorate, and the whole government on only 24% of the...

Why we need the right to strike

The Tories have wasted no time in turning their manifesto plan to further straight jacket the unions in law. Proposals in the Trade Union Bill include a 50% minimum turn out and a 40% threshold of those in favour of action in certain “key sectors”: health; education for under 17s; transport; fire services; border security and the decommissioning of nuclear plants and management of waste. Whilst these thresholds are not impossible to meet — the recent national strike action voted for by RMT members at Network Rail would have been legal under the new arrangements — they are extremely difficult...

Unite prepares ground for unlawful action

Unite the union held its rules conference in Brighton this week. About 500 delegates debated motions from sectors, branches, equalities committees and regions. Two key and contested debates were about the election of union officials and the union’s political structures and affiliation to the Labour Party. Unite members do not elect any paid officials other then the General Secretary. There were many different motions calling for the election of different types of officers by different constituencies. These motions all fell and the status quo prevailed. This is a mistake. For the union to be...

RMT AGM pledges to fight attacks

The Annual General Meeting of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union voted to back Jeremy Corbyn’s bid for Labour leader, fight the Tories’ attacks on trade union rights, and step up its work on equalities. As well as committing to militant industrial struggles, delegates also voted unanimously for several emergency resolutions from branches opposing the tightening of anti-union laws promised in the Queen’s Speech. These included support for a national demonstration and rank-and-file conference this year. Delegates voted unanimously for the union to defend migrant workers from increasing...

Mobilising for a right to strike

Both RMT and ASLEF’s tube strike ballots met the arbitrary and hypocritical thresholds the Tories plan to impose: both had turnouts of over 50%, and both had majorities of more than 40% of all those eligible to vote. It is a superb symbolic and rhetorical victory for the RMT, against whom much of the right-wing ire about “disruptive” strikes is focused, that their highest-profile ballots since the new laws were proposed, on Network Rail and now London Underground, have cleared the Tories’ thresholds. It gives an immense democratic mandate to the LU strikes, even on the Tories’ terms. But...

Right to strike!

Prior to Unison’s national delegates conference (16-19 June), Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis released a press statement about the Tories’ proposed anti-union laws. But neither his statement nor the conference itself resolved to do anything much about the biggest threat to union organisation in two decades. The new laws would require a 50% turnout threshold in a ballot and an additional 40% yes vote requirement in “core public services” (health, education, transport and fire services). Essentially outlawing all national strikes. The laws will also make it a requirement for union members...

Right To Strike!

The Tory's new anti-strike laws would require a 50% turnout threshold in a ballot and an additional 40% yes vote requirement in “core public services” (health, education, transport and fire services). Essentially outlawing all national strikes. The laws also go after funding of political parties by trade unions, making it a requirement for union members to “opt-in” to a union's political fund rather than “opting-out”. The ability of the labour movement to fund its political party, to have a voice in politics, is crucial. The businesses and wealthy individuals who fund the Tory part have no...

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