Anti-union laws

Minimum Service law can be beaten

The government has now set the minimum service levels in three of the sectors covered by the new Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act. For Border Force and some HM Passport Office staff, the minimum service stipulates that services “should be provided at a level that means they are no less effective than if a strike were not taking place”, and must “ensure all ports and airports remain open.” For ambulance staff, the minimum service level says “vital services” must continue “throughout any strike”, with all life-threatening calls, or calls “where there is no reasonable clinical alternative to...

TUC calls for action on anti-strike laws

TUC congress in Liverpool (10-13 September) passed important motions on the anti-strike and anti-union laws. The TUC bureaucracy and many union leaderships will want to ignore those motions, but we must not let them. Delegates voted for: • Three separate calls for repeal of all anti-union laws. • A national campaign on this issue, including a “national march”. • Non-compliance with the Minimum Service Levels law, including campaigning for relevant employers to refuse to issue work notices. • Convening a special congress to discuss non-compliance and resistance broadly. Several unions submitted...

Minimum service law passes: demand repeal, prepare defiance!

On 20 July the Tories’ Minimum Service Levels bill passed into law. The government, in collaboration with employers but over their heads if it sees fit, now has the power to formulate “minimum service levels” in rail, health, education services, fire and rescue, border security and nuclear decommissioning. Setting those levels is likely to take some months. Employers can then issue “work notices” compelling workers to work during strikes to provide the minimum service. Unions which organise strikes and do not make “reasonable efforts” to ensure their members comply with work notices could face...

RMT commits to demo on anti-strike laws

The AGM of the RMT rail union (Bournemouth, 23-27 June) unanimously adopted a resolution from the union’s Bakerloo line branch committing RMT to call a national demonstration

New anti-strike law: prepare defiance!

The Minimum Service Bill, reaffirmed by the House of Commons on 22 May, says “an employer may give a work notice to a trade union in relation to any strike...” Does the use of the word “may”, rather than “will” or “must”, mean that employers could choose not to issue work notices? If so, there is surely scope for targeted campaigns focusing on, for example, Labour councils and Labour-controlled transport authorities not to issue work notices. Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said that the Scottish Government would “never issue or enforce a single work notice” if the Bill becomes law...

Fight for liberty!

Early on 6 May, before the day’s coronation procession, police arrested Graham Smith and other organisers of the republican protest planned around the procession, and confiscated their placards. The cops cited, so the BBC reports, “suspicion of affray, public order offences, breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause a public nuisance”. On 8 May the police told the organisers they would take “no further action”; the organisers are now talking to lawyers about suing the police. Republic is a “moderate” organisation. It discussed its protest plans with the police in advance, and gained approval...

House of Lords amends anti-strike bill – but no room for complacency!

The House of Lords has approved amendments to the Tories’ Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill which would blunt some if its worst effects. The Lords voted for an amendment that extends protection from dismissal to striking workers who are named in a minimum service complement and refuse to work: “Failure to comply with a work notice shall not be regarded as a breach of the contract of employment of any person identified in the work notice, or constitute grounds for dismissal or any other detriment.” The Lords also voted to exempt Scotland and Wales from the bill’s measures, meaning employers...

Public Order Act imminent

The Minimum Service Levels anti-strike bill still has some way to go through the parliamentary process, but the Tories’ Public Order Bill will become law sooner. The Bill severely restricts the right to protest, bringing back the most extreme measures the government failed to get into the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act last year – including some that potentially impact the right to strike (see Amnesty International briefing ). The protests against the Police Act could have been much bigger if the labour movement had not sat them out, but they happened and many were lively. Yet there...

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