War or peace: the Conservatives and public sector workers‏

The Guardian reported on Friday that the Conservative Party is poised to introduce further anti union laws in the event that it is returned to Government next year: “the Tories are looking at introducing laws setting new minimum turnout thresholds for strike ballots on the basis that they can only be lawful disputes if a majority of those being called out on strike have voted for it in a ballot. In the case of the Royal Mail dispute there was a clear majority for the strike among those voting, but not among the total workforce.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/29/royal-mail-conservative-party-privatisation
This vindictive Tory move provoked the TULO organisation into action (after 12 years of hibernation on the issue of collective union rights) with the launch of an impromptu on line 'fightback' petition: http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/page/s/fightback

A more substantial response came from Michael Meacher MP who outlined on his personal blog the serious implications of the proposed Tory measures – effectively the outlawing of strikes http://www.michaelmeacher.info/weblog/

Meanwhile the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA) reports on its seminar at last month’s Conservative Party conference which purportedly ‘brought together shadow ministers, opinion formers and practitioners to discuss what relationship a future Conservative government might have with the public sector workforce’.

Two of the seminar contributors, Jonathan Baume of the FDA and John Tizard from the Centre for Public Sector Partnerships, set out their thoughts on the IPA website: http://www.ipa-involve.com/news/war-or-peace-the-conservatives-and-public-sector-workers/