The European Court of Human Rights has given initial approval to a submission from railworkers’ union RMT which contends that Britain’s anti-union laws are unfairly restrictive.
The submission claims that the restrictions placed on the right to strike in Britain contravene Article 11 of the European Declaration of Human Rights. The British government must now respond to the submission and, if the ECHR is not satisfied by its justifications for the UK’s anti-union laws, a full hearing will be held next year.
Senior Tory figures like London Mayor Boris Johnson are clearly unsettled by the ruling. Johnson has said the government must watch the situation “like a hawk”.
This positive outcome also has an ironic aspect, given that the RMT leadership is virulent in its anti-Europeanism. Although the ECHR is not an EU body, it too represents a supra-national, pan-European structure. Now this structure has proved itself ostensibly more progressive than the British state, perhaps the RMT leaders' left-Little Englandism will begin to crack.
Comments
Not part of EU
The ECHR is not part of the EU. As Wikipedia states:
"The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR; French: Cour européenne des droits de l’homme) in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or other contracting states, and the Court can also issue advisory opinions. The Convention was adopted under the auspices of the Council of Europe and all of its 47 member states are parties to the Convention. The court is not part of the European Union."
It's ofern confused with the European Courtof Justice, which *is* part of the EU.
This doesn't detract from the basic point about the RMT leadership's little-Englandism and hostility to all things "European" but Workers Liberty needs to get its facts exactly correct on this.
Thanks
The article has been amended.