‘THIS Tory government is coming after the one group of people – the trade unions – who are able to stand up for ordinary working people, as well as the poor and the weak, the oppressed and the dispossessed.’
This was how Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, greeted the publication of the Trade Union Bill, which the Tories presented in the House of Commons yesterday. The bill introduces a 50% minimum turnout requirement in a strike ballot and also requires a majority comprising at least 40% of the workforce to take industrial action.
It requires unions to give 14 days’ notice for strike action, removes the ban on the use of agency workers to do the jobs of those on strike and requires an ‘opt-in’ to pay the political levy to back a political party, which is currently automatic unless members opt out.
Picket lines of more than six people are to be banned, it will be an offence not to have a named individual supervising a picket line and ‘intimidation’ of non-striking workers is to be a criminal offence.
Whelan said: ‘The Tories are trying to smash the trade unions because they know we are the only thing that stands between them, and the class they represent, and a return to Victorian values – tax cuts for the bankers and the brokers who brought Britain to the brink, for a very few at the top of the pile, and a life on zero-hours contracts and the minimum wage for the rest of us.’
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash added: ‘We know that these brutal new anti-union laws are specifically targeted at our members in the transport sector who have shown in recent months that they have the guts to stand up and fight for jobs, pay, services and safety … ‘The trade union movement will unite to fight this brutal assault on the most basic of human rights and that campaign will be taken into the communities who stand to lose access to safe and reliable services as this noose of the anti-union laws is twisted round our necks.’
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: ‘This is not an attack on trade unions, it is an attack on society as a whole, as we know that weaker unions mean greater inequality.’
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said: ‘Now is the time for all those who value the hard fought for democratic rights and freedoms to expose and oppose the government’s real agenda.’
Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary, said: ‘This is a blatant political attack on anyone who might be opposed to Tory policies and to dress it up as anything else is hypocrisy worthy of a Joseph Goebbels misinformation award.’
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: ‘These measures aim to deny working people a voice and to tilt power still further towards the rich and big business, who funded the Tory re-election campaign. Tory claims to be the “workers’ party” can be seen fully for the fraud that they were.’
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: ‘These spiteful proposals will deny millions of ordinary workers a voice at work.’
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘This Bill is an unnecessary attack on workers’ rights and civil liberties that will shift the balance of power in the workplace.’
A number of unions have begun to change their rules to allow them to take illegal action to defend their rights.
