TRADE UNIONISTS have called for pre-emptive strike action to defeat the anti-union laws that the Tory government are attempting to push through parliament.
The Trade Union Bill, which attacks the fundamental right to strike, had its second reading in the House of Commons yesterday. Birmingham and West Midlands GMB Regional Secretary Joe Morgan said: ‘We are of the opinion that this Trade Union Bill must be challenged at all stages, before it becomes legislation and if that means that if our members wish to take strike action then we will support them.’
In moving the second reading of the bill Sajid Javid, Tory minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, said: ‘Despite what you may have read in some reports this bill is not a declaration of war on the trade union movement, it is not an attempt to ban industrial action, it is not an attack on the rights of working people, it won’t force strikers to seek police approval for their slogans or their tweets, it is not a reprise of Prime Minister Clement Attlee sending in troops to break up perfectly legal stoppages.’
Dennis Skinner, Labour MP for Bolsover, interjected: ‘This Bill is opposed by all of those unions who are affiliated to the Labour movement, it is opposed by all those who are not affiliated to the Labour movement. And even the Royal College of Nurses has said no to this bill. It’s a travesty and it is an intrusion upon the democracy of the work place. Get rid of it!’
Shadow Secretary of State Angela Eagle told the House of Commons: ‘I am a lifelong and proud trade unionist. This is the most significant, sustained partisan attack on six million trade union members that we have seen in this country in the last 30 years.
‘The bill before us today is draconian, vindictive and counter-productive, it is very provocative, highly ideological and has no evidence base at all. ‘The right to be part of a trade union, and the fundamental right to strike is enshrined in the UN bill of human rights. This bill rides roughshod over all that. They are trying to silence the trade unions, it is another gagging bill.’
Rob Williams, chair of the national shop stewards network, told News Line: ‘The message must be simple. Cameron we are going to take you down. If this goes into law we want mass coordinated strike action.’
Carl Webb North West Regional Secretary CWU said: ‘This is the most unfair and vindictive bill that has ever been put forward and the trade unions should do all it can to defeat the bill. It is a blatant attack on workers’ rights and their civil liberties in taking industrial action.’
TUC general secretary O’Grady said at the TUC Congress: ‘We oppose the Trade Union Bill because it attacks the fundamental principle of the right to strike, it is a very important civil liberty which we cherish in this country.
‘I can tell you this, the government has woefully miscalculated the resilience of working people and their unions because let me make it clear with every ounce of our strength we will oppose this trade Union Bill.’