By Steven North
The Tories are now pretending to be the “party of working people”, but we know the reality is very different.
Instead of respecting the important contribution played by trade unions representing nearly 7m workers, this Government proposes the Trade Union Bill, which contains the following measures:
- Grossly undemocratic turnout thresholds on ballots for industrial action.
Despite the Tories being elected by just 24% of the population, their Government is proposing that unions will need a 50% turnout for strikes to be legal and, in addition to this, 40% of the entire eligible balloted workforce will need to vote “Yes” in certain services.
- Legalising the use of agency staff to break strikes (illegal since the 1970s)
This is fundamentally about pitting working people against each other. Before the practice of using agency workers to cover for striking workers was made unlawful, violent confrontations between those seeking to defend their jobs and unemployed people desperate for a day’s work were common occurences. We do not want a return to those days. We want the maximum solidarity of working people and in the first instance that means opposing this Bill.
- Placing further restrictions on legal picketing.
Existing regulations already render effective picketing very difficult. Workers do not wish to confront their colleagues – in fact it is a very hard thing to do – but without the ability to enforce a democratic decision to strike workers may as well give up and accept attacks on our living standards. The Tories know this and that is why they want to try and render picketing ineffective.
- Expecting trade union members to have social media posts pre-approved before they can be posted.
This is perhaps the most sinister aspect of the Trade Union Bill. All other organisations in our country – including the press – operate under the principle of “publish and be damned, which means that you can say or write what you want but if it breaches certain protocols or laws you can subsequently be punished for doing so. This law will place a different set of rules on the views of people who happen to be trade union members. That is fascism. There is no other word for it – and I am not the first person to call it that. That was David Davis, a man generally regarded as being on the right of the Conservative Party.
- Clamping down on voluntary party funding in an attempt to silence the political voice of working people.
Billionaires and multi-national corporations are free to throw exorbitant sums of money at politicians. In fact Cameron thinks nothing of auctioning tennis games with him and Boris Johnson to Russian oligarchs. Why do they pay it? Because it gains them proximity and the opportunity for influence. Yet, ordinary working class people are looked upon with scorn if we and try and use our hard-earned money, through our union to support candidates who back our ideas. This is gross hypocrisy.
- Attacking facilities time and the right for union members to have their subs deducted at payroll (check off)
Unions often have agreements with employers, whereby the employer will deduct union subs at the source in exchange for a fee paid by the union. This is a private contractual relationship between two parties that one would think an apparently pro-market Government would support. However, when it comes to trade unions they are not even prepared to tolerate our attempts to play by their rules!
Fundamentally, the Trade Union Bill is not an attack on trade unions or trade unionists. It is actually broader than that. It is an attack on working people.
Numerous studies have shown that workers in trade unionised workplaces (whether they are in the union or not) enjoy better holiday pay, better health and safety, better family friendly policies and better opportunities regardless of their gender, race, disability or sexuality. Civil society also benefits from strong trade unions because of their tireless work in opposing racism, defending human rights at home and abroad and in holding the powerful to account. The Government knows the unions are the biggest obstacle to their attempts to create a more brutal, harsher and less caring society and that is why they are attacking us.
What they don’t seem to realise is that all the draconian legislation in the world will not make us go away. Trade unions will persist as long as working people see the benefit of joining together to ask for something that they cannot get as individuals.
The passage of this Bill will make it harder for unions to engage in activities that are of benefit to employers, like joint health and safety work and education programs. Instead we will be forced to use our more limited resources to concentrate squarely on the bread and butter fight for jobs and pay. The nature of our relationship with employers and the State will become more fractious and we will be forced to return to some of the old ways of organising – outside the law and without any reference to what the employers might deem “good practice”.
We do not welcome that in a fetishist fashion. Union members – especially those in the public sector – want their unions to be in the workplace trying to resolve problems before industrial conflict impacts on the people they work to support. However, we won’t stop fighting if the Bill is passed and that door is closed. Unions existed before check-off and before agreed facilities time. We will continue to exist if they are taken away.
Ultimately, we must oppose the Trade Union Bill because no Government has the right to attack our inalienable human right to withdraw our labour or to express our ideas. But if we can’t stop them in Parliament, the Tories should know that the battle will continue on the streets and on the picket lines – and despite what they may think, the truth is that their attacks will only make those picket lines stronger.
