Anti-union laws

CWU cancels strikes after legal threat

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) announced via a public online briefing on 30 October that it was cancelling department-by-department strikes planned in early November, following threats of legal action from Royal Mail. CWU officials said Royal Mail had raised objections about the information given to them by the union about which members had been balloted in just three out of 1,500 workplaces. However, the CWU’s legal department’s advice was that facing down Royal Mail’s threats in court could lead to the entire ballot being injuncted. Planned all-out strikes on 12 and 14 November...

Local strikes spread as national disputes expand and accelerate

One of the markers of the significance of the current strike wave is that it includes, alongside national strikes in nationwide industries such as the rail and post, a proliferation of local disputes. That indicates not only the general conditions of mounting inequality and worsening wages and conditions, but an increasing confidence of workers to fight back. In Aintree, near Liverpool, nearly 700 workers in the GMB union at the Jacob’s Bakery factory have held a rolling strike since 26 September, striking for 12 hours at a time, for a total of 14 strikes so far. They are fighting for an...

A sense of confidence (John Moloney's column)

Our members working for His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) in 65 magistrates’ courts across England and Wales will strike 22-30 October. They’re fighting for the removal of a computer system that’s been introduced for organising their work, called “Common Platform”. The system increases workload whilst also opening the door to job cuts, the worst of all worlds. It’s important that, while our national ballot continues (26 September to 7 November), local and departmental disputes continue to be fought, and that we keep a focus on them. We have a number of such disputes which are...

Free Our Unions protest on 10 October

The Free Our Unions campaign, along with Earth Strike UK’s Empower the Unions initative, has called a protest at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in central London, at 5:30pm on 10 October. BEIS will likely be one of the departments involved in drawing up new anti-union legislation, and is also a key department in terms of climate and energy policy. Earth Strike’s Empower the Unions initiative focuses on the ways in which anti-union laws constrain workers from taking action over the climate. Free Our Unions also held a fringe meeting at the Labour Party...

Protest now against new anti-union laws

From a briefing produced by the Free Our Unions campaign: here . Protest on 10 October, 5.30pm, outside the BEIS offices, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET. Download graphic here. Free Our Unions is advocating for the unions to actively and energetically campaign against any new anti-union laws, and for the repeal of all existing laws. This should include using union influence in the Labour Party to ensure that Labour MPs and the leadership publicly call for the scrapping of all anti-union laws and commit to doing so when in power. The party in government should also legislate to improve...

Squeezing the right to strike

The exact details of any new anti-union measures remain to be seen. During a live BBC TV debate, both Tory leadership candidates answered “Yes” to the question of whether they would ban strikes in essential services outright. Liz Truss promised to bring in a new law within 30 days of taking office. Potential proposals include: • Doubling again the notice unions must give employers before taking action, from 14 to 28 days • Increasing the “support threshold” provision from 40% to 50% • Expanding the “support threshold” provision from “important public services’ to any strike ballot •...

Trade union laws since the 1980s

1982 TUC leaflet Since 1980 a series of laws passed by Conservative governments have created one of the most hostile environments for union organising in any democratic society in the world. These laws: • Prohibit workers from undertaking “solidarity” or “sympathy” strikes in support of workers in other industries • Restrict strikes to “trade disputes” against their own employer, meaning workers cannot strike in support of wider social causes or against political decisions they disagree with • Force unions to undertake the slow process of postal balloting before any action is taken • Force...

Haunted by Andrey Vyshinsky’s ghost

Last week I sent out a message to tens of thousands of trade unionists alerting them to two bits of news. The good news, I reported, was that some workers in Poland had won a big victory in court. The bad news was that in Ukraine, President Zelenskyy had failed to veto anti-union legislation, as we had been demanding. Most people reacted with thanks, or said nothing, but two of the emails I got within a minute of each other were, I think, interesting. The first said: “You’re talking about a fucking union at a time of war. Where’s your head at you dirty lefty”. The second said: “Of course...

Free Our Unions steps up

The Free Our Unions campaign has stepped up its activity in response to threats of new anti-union laws from Liz Truss and Grant Shapps. The campaign is co-organising a demonstration outside the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy at 5pm, scheduled for 12 September, as part of Extinction Rebellion’s September rebellion. Co-organised with Earth Strike UK, an anti-capitalist collective in the climate movement, the demo aims to highlight the ways in which restrictive anti-union laws inhibit workers’ action over climate issues. On 13 September, Free Our Unions is holding a...

The threat of new anti-strike laws

There are more strikes in the UK than for a long time. This tremendous fact, of workers asserting our rights and ourselves, has potential to change many things for the better. But to win, the strikes need to accelerate, spread, and coordinate. If we let the relatively favourable conditions now pass, then by 2023 we will probably face even tighter anti-strike laws from Truss or Sunak, as well as reduced real wages and outright poverty for many. In response to menacing social regression and a rising spirit of revolt among many workers, some unions are doing much better than for many years. But...

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