legal threat members to unions under The latest attack by the government on Thispaper, presented to parliament in March this year, proposes to give new rights to their employer because they do not hold a union card, These nonunionists will be able to go to trade union rights is the Green Paper humorous title Removing Barriers 10 prospective workers denied access to a job by an industrial tribunal where they can confident- which bears the unintentionally Employment.
to compensation. anti-union package is coming - with no TUC opposition in sight employment protection rights. CInuse eight of 1961 Factory Act, so as to remove restrictions 16 and 18. Asu result many of the present limits work, night work and shift working times, and workers in firms employing five or less people no longer have the right to return to work after maternity leave. Restrictions on women doing Clause ten of the Bill makes amendments to reasonahle time off work, with pay, to carry out the duties of a union official, if that union is recognised by management. The amendments limit paid time off for union work and time off for training to matters in which the union is ly restrict the time lay officials can take off for their union duties and for union training This constant attempt by the govemment to workers" job conditions has attracted criticism tional Labour Organisation, has called for legislation to bring Britain into line with the minimum requirements accepted by over 100 countries throughout the world, It points our that Britsin has broken intomational conven- • The denial of negotiating rights lo SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 16 June 1989 on hours of work — total daily hours, weekend the previous rights of all employees to this Bill amends existing laws, particularly the on the employment of young people between half-day bolidays for young persons under the 1950 Shops Act will he repealed. Women recognised by the employer. This will severe- undermine basic trade union rights and from far beyond the British labour movement. The Geneva-based United Nations Intema- • Allowing employers to blacklist union tions on eight counts. It lists these as follows: Removing the barriers to union-busting: Thatcher's seventh • The union han at GCHQ. night work will be repealed. which are designed to make sure that workers find it more and more difficult to either call a legislation that forbids picketing by strikers Unions can be bankrupted and often the threat of scquestration is enough to make the timid buraucrats who lead most of Britain's unions Unions can not now reimburse members' legal expenses for offences allegedly com- mitted during a strike. However, workers who want to take action in the courts against their Fice of Infonnation leaflet explains how the Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members can probably help them. It says that Commissioner's assistance the Commissioner. workers victimised, or discriminated against, tribunal. In 1979, six months" service qualified This now stands at two years, Furthermore, it is proposed that industrial trihunals can demand that the claimant pays a deposit before their case is heard. Even if the claim is upheld, there which is rather a contrast-to the compensation The Employment Bill is a real onslaught on: strike, or win one, are further reinforced by As recent disputes have shown, sequestra- tion of union funds is a powerful weapon in the and the employers. union are given a heiping hand. A Central Of- even if the litigant loses the case in the courts, *was brought with the But state generosity does not extend to those who want totake their grievance to an industrial is no right to a statutory minimum payment, of up to E8,925 the dismissed non-unionist a worker to appeal against unfair dismissal. anywhere but at their own place of work. will hear the costs awarded against you? hands of both the state breaker is entitled All these measures bers for scabbing. cipline their mem- provided it run for cover. proposed legislation which would give similar The Green Paper also proposes removing original strikers. Workers on strike who call on others to take sympathetic action and embargo workers to take industrial action over the "single union" deal at Dundee would have been in defiance of the law, and therefore subject to legal penalties. The proposals also recommend as extending strike balloting laws to cover people working under contracts for service Along with the present Employment Bill, due to go on the statute book in the autumn of in 1990 will be the seventh piece of anti trade union legislation since the Tories were elected ministration has not tried to curb union rights fered damages arising from what they define as ly expect to get a compensation payment of up chough there is no rights to a worker denied a job because they further legal protection from secondary dis putes where the other employer is supplying goods to the boss who is in dispute with the goods destined for their employer will face If the recent proposals had been on the statute book in 1988, then the threat of the Ford giving more powers to the so-called Commis- sioner for the Rights of Union Members, as well which would affect many people like freelance this year, the Green Paper, which becomes law in 1979, Unlike Labour's In Place of Strife, or in one fell swoop: It has, instead, at two yearly intervals, consistentiy eroded the nghts of trade union memhers by the device of unending the existing laws which operate in the industrial Unions can be sued by employers, their own members, and by third parties who have suf- unlawful action. Most secondary achion is un- lawful, and if Removing the Barriers to Employment becomes law, will be even more so. Political strikes are in breach of the law, Employers have been granted greater freedom Heath's 1971 Industrial Relations Act, this ad- tribunals and the civil courts. were members of a union. to £8.925. Naturally legal penalties. Page 6
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Break the Dont tell PHOTO: John Haris/FL
Page 7 By Janet Knight only loyal and responsible to the bourgeois that many of the aspects of its Social Charter are implemented, Particularly those covering henefits, the right to belong to a trade union, recommendations are not going to he handed union laws. Because the unions failed to take on the law, trade unionism was wiped out at GCHQ. For Thatcher, Cheltenham was just onc step along the mad to rendering the unions powerless. She and her cabinet are determined selves able to climinate the trade unions in the foresceable future, they do intend to render Labour by its silence over its proposals on industrial relations has spoken volumes. There is no guarantee that Labour will win the next election. Nor is there any gusrantee that if it does do, that it will restore to the union mem- bers their hasic rights. By all means let us cam- paign to commit Labour to a policy of total repeal, but let us start the fight now to build a movetent right across the unions which is prepared to break the Tories' anti-union laws. That is the only way to win back the democratic rights of the working people, which the state and its courts have stolen from them in the last who determine how a union spends its money. tive of non-elected High Court judges, who are Without placing any reliance on the capitalist EEC, we should nevertheless demand minimum hours of work, access to decent salaries, the right of all citizens to social But even those quite modest down courtesy of a Tory goverment. Thatcher's present ravings against Brussels are in no small part attributable to the Social Only resolute trade union struggle will en- sure that these recommendations are achieved. And that means defying the government's anti- to bring in legislation that eventually will prevent all strikes. Even if they do not see them- None of these mallers should be the preroga the right to strike and for a guaranted mini- state. decide whether or not to discipline scabs who rank and file and their elected representatives People ar Work, Bulterfield commented: "It's relations legislation since 1979. A Bill of Rights for the workforce offers a lot, and supremo, and his ad team are far better in- formed on policy matters than Labour's elected terfield says as being from the horse's mouth. Kinnock's new realism is going to be very short on restoring union rights. Their concer is with assuring the bourgeoisie that Labour is fit to govem - trade union members' demonitic The struggle against Thatcher's anti-trade union laws cannot be safely left in the hands of the "new realists". Right now a campaign must begin in the constituency parties and in the unions, which insists that a new Lahour govem- meat will repeal all the anti-union legislation The unions are the defensive organisations of tie working class. They are the means whereby workers defend their living stundards, protect health and safety at work, and defend their members against unfair dismissal and vic- timisation. It is the members alone who should decide when and where to strike. They must have put their own selfish interests above those of the majority of the members. It must he the not saying we will repeal every bit of industrial doesn't give carte blanele for secondary pick- Now an Peter Mandelson. Labour' spublicity national exocutive. you can take what Mr But- Retreating before the law: Ron Todd rights come a poor second. brought in since 1979. TO • Allowing employers to split companies • Allowing employers to sack workers who haust themselves, conclude that 100 percent votes, with the apt comment'...iTa memberef ment policy, that member would be shown the Ionly the Labour Party was so forthright in its criticisms of the anti union laws! The policy review has come up with nothing specific. It has employment sectetary. did talk on iclevisinn anti-picketing legislation. Even this mild stand down on lus head and the Sardizy Times of 28 May reported that in October Meacher would he sacked from his job and replaced by a moderale who would help to "shed Lahour's image of heing dominated by One of Labour's new ad-men, Leslie Batter- field. who is involved in selling Kinnock to the electors, calls the new policy sance the new realist which he reckons to be a 'highly marketable product. Speaking about the • Restrictions on unions' rightsto discipline • The ban on unions paying fines on Even the Cabolic Church, hardly a body known for its advocacy of class struggle militancy has jenned in the protests against Thatcher's anti-union policies. A Catholic Trith Society publication 4 Threefold Chord, noting that modern technology can often main- tain production long cnough for strikers to ex- suppurt of employces and pickets is "ahsolute- ly necessary' It therefore criticises the legisla- tion thatallows union memberstordely majority the government were to vote against govern- not one wond to say on the vital issue of pick- eting. Although Michael Meacher, the shadow about unions having the right in certain instan ces, to take sccondary action, he in no way ar- gued that Labour should abolish the Tories! has brought the wrath of Kinnock and the new SOCMLIST OUTLOOK no 16 June 1989 Up against the law: dockers lobby • The ban on sympathetic action. utificially to limit industrial action. Loor very quickly members behalf. go on strike. members, members.
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most 17,000 members, though many older having become an independent party. For any who doubt the overwhelming in- 1935 they were down to 4,500, and a year later 1,000. Trotsky argued that part of the reason provide a real focur for all those who want to fight the Tories and who see the current Labour portance of the Lahour Party with Its base in dent Labour Party (HEP) is a sobering one. In the eurly 1930s il had up to 100,000 members. though many of these wery on paper only. At its split from the Labour Party in 1932 (at the members resigned at this time, leaving politics down again to an effective membership of the ILP tumed not toward the trade unions and the trade unions the history of the old Indepen altogether or rejoining the Lahour Pany: By the Labour Party, not towand the marses al- wrong time and on the wrong issue), it had al Never to be forgotten? This year's Socialist Conference will Icadership as a block against any fightback. for the ILP's dramatic decline war that: be attended for the first time by Ken Livingstone weak, the situation in the Labour Party is also working class are turing again to the Labour ture. The task of the Socialist Conference is to But if the situation of the left in the unions is cause they cannot see any way forward in the Party - here lies the importance of organising the left in the constituencies. If the Socialist ment, is relationship to the Lahour Party will be put into sharp focus - both for the left and Just at the point when Thatcher is looking weaker than at any time since before the Mal- vinas War, at the point when the mass of the Party to solve its pmblems, to be outside those developments would be a disaster. When the socialist left is fighting against the stram, any discussion about separation from the Labour difficult, Many members are drifting out be- Conference rums itself into an organised move- Party or the formation of a new party is prema equivalent to the Campaign Group of MPs. wink done by the trade O Network and the Con - 9l впо Stel of trade tinions among