‘THIS anti-union legislation has to be answered by unified, generalised strike action from the entire trade union movement.’
Bakers Union leader Ronnie Draper was responding to the Third Reading of the Trade Union Bill 2015-16 which was passed in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening by 305 votes to 271. Amendments to the bill were defeated by similar margins and now the bill will proceed to the House of Lords and then, after receiving royal assent, is set to become law early next year.
In Tuesday’s debate in the House of Commons, Labour MP Ian Lavery said: ‘This is undoubtedly a ferocious, full-frontal attack on the six million-plus members of the trade union movement … This is the gagging Bill, part 2. It is about disarming any dissent, particularly in the public sector.
‘When we look at the thresholds, the ballot provisions, the measures on agency workers and all the new clauses and amendments, we begin to see the big picture. The Bill is about criminalising working people and eradicating any resistance, particularly in the public sector and particularly with regard to women.
‘Why are the Government bashing low-paid people in the public sector, imposing pay restraints on them and coming up with crazy ideas about stripping tax credits from hard-working, low-paid people? They do not want to give those people the right to fight back. That is what the Bill is about. It is about eradicating that dissent while the Conservative Government keep their foot firmly on the necks of the low paid who are struggling even to make ends meet.’
Labour MP Jack Dromey said: ‘It is part of a wider agenda that will brook no opposition: first the charities, then the BBC, even the House of Lords and now the trade unions. The Tory party wants a one-party, one-nation state.’
Ronnie Draper, General Secretary of the Bakers Union, told News Line: ‘The TUC has to act, they mustn’t just step back and let this thing happen. Whether you call it a general strike or generalised action, which ever way you phrase it, there has to be TUC action to defeat this legislation. What they did in the House of Commons last night was vote to take away the rights of working people. It’s absolutely diabolical.
‘It shows what the Tories are about: cuts in education, housing and health, cutting everything that working people need and rely on. And what they are trying to do with this legislation is remove any real opposition to this in the country.
‘The Tories are trying to take away everything that we have and put it into the hands of their friends private enterprise. There were 200 at the Trade Union Coordinating Group rally at Parliament Square last night. There should have been six million. We should have been blocking the whole of London, not just the pavement.’
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘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 … It was welcome to see politicians from many parties recognise the damage it could do. This Bill is not fit for purpose and should have no place in a modern democracy.’
Following the vote, News Line contacted the TUC and asked if it would oppose the bill by proceeding with its policy, overwhelmingly carried at the 2012 Congress, to ‘consider the practicalities of a general strike’. The TUC officer replied, ‘We have to move on from where we are now and consider what we are doing with the House of Lords.
‘The procedure of the bill to the House of Lords offers the chance to do as much as possible to deal with the problems we see with the bill. We want to see an end to this bill and we call on the House of Lords to reject it.’