THE leadership of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) was shaken at the union’s biennial delegate conference in Brighton yesterday, when a substantial number of delegates voted for Motion 106, calling on the union to refuse to issue repudiation letters if their members take ‘unofficial’ industrial action.
The motion was submitted by TGWU Branch 4/1.
The TGWU national executive opposed the motion.
In the debate Douglas Wood, speaking in support, said: ‘The law allows employers to refuse to reinstate workers.
‘We have a strong union and we told our management if they don’t reinstate our shop steward, we’ll ballot for strike action – and he was reinstated.
‘These anti-union laws are not Tory laws, they are Labour laws of a government that has been in 10 years. It’s time for change.’
Opposing the motion, Ian Richardson, Region Six, said: ‘We have enough companies out there capable of manufacturing a dispute so they can get to our funds and cripple us.
‘Don’t fall into a capitalist trap.
‘We can’t fight without money.’
Mr Dhillon, the ex-Gate Gourmet convenor, from Region One, took part in the debate and opposed the motion.
He said that ‘when they dismissed our members we thought they had made a mistake, but we found out it was pre-planned.
‘We were lucky enough that we had a general secretary who was courteous and wise.
‘He came sometimes twice a day to the picket line.’
Dhillon added: ‘We say act sensibly. . . We have to work within the law.’
Supporting the motion, sacked Liverpool docker Kevin Robinson, Region Six, said: ‘The main thing is to fight. . .
‘You have to stand up and fight for your rights.’
Intervening for the executive, TGWU General Secretary Tony Woodley opposed the motion, saying: ‘I agree with all of the motion, but we don’t agree with the sentence supporting non-repudiation.
‘If we were to follow that line, which literally calls for us not to repudiate, we would face losing all our funds.’
Replying to the discussion, the mover of the motion, Rob Williams, from the Visteon car components factory in south Wales, said: ‘You could feel in the debate on agency workers we’ve reached the limit of the law to protect ourselves.
‘The same Labour MPs who talked out the Agency Workers Bill will talk out the Trade Union Freedom Bill.
‘I can see that it won’t even see the light of day.
‘The union’s assets are not buildings, but its people.
‘We saw the film about Colombian workers standing up against death threats.
‘How do we explain to these courageous trade unionists from Colombia that we can’t stand up against these anti-union laws?
‘The issue of repudiation is the most concrete expression of the trade union laws.
‘It puts shop stewards in the firing line, it puts their necks on the block.
‘It’s the anti-union laws that are the problem, not fighting the anti-union laws.
‘We can take these laws on and defeat them.’
