Remember recent and current disputes
Magnet Darlington: workers vote to go on strike in a ballot which meets all the requirements of the Tory legislation. They are immediately sacked. Though their strike is lawful they have no legal remedy, no rights to compensation or reinstatement against their boss.
Solution : A new legal right to reinstatement if sacked for taking industrial action.
Quadrant Catering: Members of the Communication Workers Union vote to overwhelmingly to take industrial action to stop Blair selling off 49 per cent of Quadrant, the Post Office caterers, to private industry. Union officers are advised industrial action is unlawful as it is 'political' and falls outside the definition of a 'trade dispute'.
Solution : An amended definition of a trade dispute to reverse the Tory changes in their 1982 Act and protect trade unionists when they strike against privatisation.
Critchley Labels: Members of the CWU are sacked after their union is derecognised and they go on strike. Critchley's main customer is BT. The CWU leadership supports the strikers but refuses to organise a boycott of Critchley's products as the Tory laws prohibit secondary action.
Solution : New rights to recognition and protection for trade unionists and union funds when taking solidarity action.
Noon's Products: Gulam Noon refuses to recognise the GMB at his Southall factory even though a majority of workers have joined the union and elected shop stewards. The workers are not on strike. But they are suffering harassment.
Solution: New rights to recognition, a duty on the employer to bargain, protection for union members and facilities for shop stewards.
Liverpool dockers: Sacked Torside workers picket out Mersey Docks and Harbour employees. All are sacked. They have no legal remedy. Bill Morris claims solidarity action cannot be fought for or the unions will be sequestrated.
Solution: New rights to reinstatement to take solidarity action and for trade unionists to make their own balloting rules.
Solutions … but only partial solutions. Countries like the USA have had rights to recognition since the 1930s. Yet union density at 12 per cent is less than half that in Britain. Whatever the law it is unlikely "Bank of England" Bill would have fought for solidarity action in support of the dockers'. Legislation can be a useful weapon. But only if it is supported by determined and aggressive rank and file action.