5,000 SHEFFIELD council workers have given a good example of how to fight the Tory anti-union laws.
Confronted with a choice of more wage cuts or massive redundancies at the hands of a Labour council which last year slashed their pay, they held an angry 2,500-strong meeting - and voted there and then for a one-day strike.
Officially disowned by union officials petrified that they might see their funds sequestered under the draconian Tory anti-union laws, strikers produced a defiant leaflet slamming those Labour councillors who had denounced their strike as illegal:
"The decision of a members' meeting of over 2,000 people on March 8 may be contrary to the Tories' anti union legislation - so what?
"We will not passively accept a deterioration in council service."
This show of defiance follows the unofficial strikes by three branches of the college lecturers' union NATHE, after Appeal Court judges had ruled that the union's ballot and March 1 strike call were unlawful.
Longer hours
The NATFHE action was called to oppose brutal new contracts to take effect from April 1, imposing longer hours, reduced holidays and 'flexible' working. In other words, the anti-union laws are now being used in earnest for their prime purpose - driving down the pay and conditions of the working class.
Already successive waves of legislation have outlawed solidarity action and mass picketing, leaving strikes like Burnsalls isolated, and been used to sequester the entire assets of the NUM. But now an even more comprehensive net of legislation threatens to ensnare unions. aimed al preventing strikes ever being called.
The NATFHE leaders, disregarding their own 62% ballot vote for action, meekly buckled before the court threats, it is becoming increasingly clear that defiance of the law is ultimately the only answer LAMBETH Trades Council No open door for unions: Tories like Heseltine simply exploit TUC signs of weakness The legislation is almost impossible for unions to comply with. According to the Court of Appeal, the ballot stepped outside the rules by failing to notify college bosses of the individual names of every union member entitled to vote. One judge said the union records must be accurate to "within the number of fingers on two hands".
But NATFHE has 50,000 members. There is scarcely a union in the country, other than a minority in workplaces where all members pay contributions by check-off, which could not fall foul of this ruling, no matter how big the majority vote for action or how democratic the ballot.
These latest obstacles to the right to strike follow on the new laws which oblige union members to "sign up' every three years for direct deduction of contributions (the DOCAS system), while allowing employers to refuse this facility.
Pulling out
Already some unions are facing massive loss of membership as a result, with increasing numbers of employers, including NHS Trusts, announcing that they will pull out of DOCAS.
The trust of Tory policy has always been quite explicit - to smash unions and drive down wages. Kenneth Clarke at the recent G7 meeting in Chicago boasted "According to the Tory courts." that the cornerstone of Tory hopes of economic recovery was 'deregulation' -imposing legal shackles on unions while encouraging employers to smash through any remaining legislative protection for workers. British anti- union laws are more draconian than in almost any modern bourgeois democracy.
Wages councils
Major's gang have scrapped the wages councils which once guaranteed minimum pay to the most exploited; they have only just been overruled by the courts after years of opposing equal pay for part-time staff; and they are now at loggerheads with the European Union over their opposition to restrictions on child labour and the hours worked by schoolage teenagers.
Ignoring all these facts, the TUC which has retreated down the line since the first anti-union laws in 1980, clings on the the belief that there is some mileage in talks with the Tories.
On March 3, Treasury Minister Stephen Dorrell was welcomed into Congress House to speak to 300 union leaders and reps, spelling out his insistence that any public sector pay rises had to be earned through job-cutting 'efficiency'. He has been invited to address civil service unions on March 22.
On March 9, Liberal Democrat camBY WORKING HARDER... BY BOSSING paigns organiser Des Wilson was appointed as the head of campaigning for the TUC. The next day, TUC leader John Monks was invited by Tory ministers to join talks on how to restore shattered trade links with Malaysia.
Spotting more signs of weakness, on March 17 Employment Secretary David Hunt made what BBC commentators described as a 'conciliatory' speech welcoming the TUC's recent reorganisation and offering a 'window of opportunity' for unions to play a positive role in the success of British industry.
Like Dorrell, Hunt tempered his few words of conciliation' - the pledge that there will be no new anti-union laws be fore this parliament - with arrogant demands that the unions break their links with the Labour Party and 'leave political posturing behind'.
Union branches, regions and this summer's conferences must give a prompt and unequivocal answer: they must back the example of the Sheffield council workers, and demand the unions break off all talks and collaboration with the Tories, which does nothing but strengthen the employers.
Instead unions should synchronise and mobilise their campaigns and mass action to defy and break the Tory laws.
Public sector unions must band together in a fighting alliance to mash the pay freeze and defend the welfare state.
Coordinate
The Socialist Movement Trade Union Committee, which has consistently campaigned to unshackle the unions, can play a leading role in coordinating the efforts of the left at this summer's conferences. Its April 9 steering committee should map out plans to pile pressure on to the collaborationist union bureaucrats.
With threats of redundancy running from top to bottom through every industry - including retail, banks and even telecom management - there can be no peace or security for workers or their unions until this hated, discredited, authoritarian government is defeated.