LABOUR'S refusal to repeal the whole gamut of Tory anti-union laws has landed them in deep water not only with socialists but also with Tories and top judges. They have latched onto the Kinnock team's plan to establish a spocial ocurt to hear legal challenges to trade We demand the complete repeal of all antiunions under the romaining Tory laws. Labour has suggested that such a court would have no power to soquestor the assets of unions.
Attorney General Sir Patrick May.
up by Tories under Edward Hoath in the early 1970s, has claimed that Labour's proposal would represent 'alarming interference. The same point has beon echoed by Lord Lane Noither is of course in the least concerned with upholding the froedom of trade unions; their objective is to preserve the untrammeled right of High Court judges to threaten and sequester them.
Soquestration, argues Sie Patrick, is the only means by which a court can enforce an order when it is being defied.
And he is above all determined to ensure wat te personner sung i judgement in any court woul maintain the present anti-union bias. dluding anyone likely to support the union point of view.
A quick response from shadow employment secretary Tony Biair showed that t is not the Tories but the labour movement that should fear the Labour proposals.
The industrial relations court will be a division of the High Court, chaired by a senior judge, he argued, whie denying thát Labour has any plans to prevent employers taring moncons against unions or to scrap the restrictions on numbers on picket lines.
It is clear that Labour's plans embody the worst of all worlds, antagonilltle if any support from the working dlass movement. Now on strike for over 15 weeks, Rotherham Advertiser journalists are as united as ever. This is exactly the right time to hit back with united action' said Phil Turner, the journalists' FoC (shop steward).
The fourteen NUj members, on strike against union derecognition, have waged a militant campaign to fight for their union rights. Support from local unions has been a big factor in keeping the strike going. Practically every factory in Rotherham is having a weekly collection for us now frui explainca But thestumbling block has been the maiority union in the plant - the GPMU print workers' union. Phil is at pains to explain that it's not the 200-plus GPMU members in the plant that the national leadership.
'The GPMU inside the plant Landii are solidly be hind us - but the go-ahead leadership won't let them take secondary action. But you can't win any strike these days without confronting the union laws'he said.
The strike has kept its public profile high by producing a Paper, the Real Advertiser. really galls management that we can produce a better paper than they can, es. Eight issues of the paper around the town to provide runds for the aispute The journalists have also organised days of action to rally support from outside, attracting delegations trom local factories and NUJ members from all over the country.
The strikers are determined to maintain their struggle for union rights. But they need support Donations and messages of support to: Rotherham Adterdispute, c/o ISTC, Edgcumbe House, Doncaster Road, Rotheriam. Cheques to: Rotherham Advertiser NUJ Social Club. INCORPORATING THE REAL RECORD Abbey CUlICe alive