YESTERDAY morning, the TUC commented on the vote in the House of Commons on the third reading of the Trade Union Bill, which is now going to the House of Lords.
There was no TUC-organised demonstration outside the House of Commons at the decisive third reading. The TUC general council left the MPs alone to consider these vital matters, placing all their hopes on Tory ‘rebels’. There was no TUC mass demo organised, neither was there a Unite, Unison or GMB mass presence!
The reason for this ‘lapse’ was that the leaders of the major trade unions had placed all their faith in a group of Tories who had expressed their doubts about some of the Bill’s proposals, and trusting them was much more comfortable for the TUC than mobilising angry workers.
The government was allowed to win all along the line, and now the measure goes to the House of Lords with the TUC pleading with their lordships to do what they have refused to do, to fight and throw out the draconian Tory measures.
Wednesday morning’s TUC website observed: ‘The government has shown once again its determination to undermine the fundamental right to strike. Ministers simply want to make it harder for working people to get fair treatment at work.
‘While today’s vote is disappointing, the campaign against the Bill is far from over. We will continue to oppose it as it goes through the House of Lords. As was shown in Parliament today, there is widespread concern about the threat this Bill poses to good industrial relations. It was welcome to see politicians from many parties recognise the damage it could do.’
In its notes to editors, it was pointed out: ‘There was significant cross-party opposition to the Trade Union Bill from MPs. Four Conservative MPs proposed or signed amendments to the Bill (David Davis, Sarah Wollaston, Stephen McPartland and Jeremy LeFroy). Mr LeFroy spoke out about the government’s “check-off proposals”. His amendment was resisted by the government.’
The TUC, having refused to mobilise the working class to fight the Bill, plans to stick with the same rotten policy of relying on so-called progressive Tories, in the House of Lords to defend the basic rights of the working class. Anything is better than mobilising the workers – is the TUC line! The TUC record stinks.
At this year’s TUC Congress they withdrew the motion that wanted to continue to discuss the practicalities of organising a general strike. This action signalled to so-called progressive Tories that they had no intention of fighting. The TUC leaders then went on to signal through the leader of the Unite trade union, McCluskey, that they were in fact prepared to accept anti-union laws as long as they got ‘electronic voting’ and that they were willing to dump the workers in favour of an alliance with ‘progressive Tories’, an alliance that ruled out the calling of a general strike.
Unite leader McCluskey, after the TUC Congress, wrote a letter to Cameron offering ‘to accept the thresholds necessary for legal strike action, as proposed in the new anti-union bill, in return for the Tories conceding electronic voting at work places’.
He agreed to accept anti-union laws in principle, and then boasted that Amnesty and some Tories were opposed to the new bill, and would support the trade unions. The TUC leaders agreed to abandon the working class in favour of their pact with their Tory ‘mates’.
Now the working class will pay the price as the Bill goes to the House of Lords to be signed off. Yesterday, a TUC press officer told the News Line that the TUC would be calling on the Lords to throw the bill out. They continue to carry out their policy of helping the enemy bind the working class hand and foot and also gag it, so that the bosses can superexploit them, provided of course that the TUC is allowed to remain the leadership of the trade unions.
The working class must now take action to force the TUC General Council to resign. – There must be a new TUC General Council, prepared to call the general strike and mobilise the mass of workers to bring down the Tories and go forward to a workers government and socialism!
