Tony Blair famously said in 1997 that even allowing for New Labour's fairness at work legislation the UK would have 'the most restrictive labour laws in the western world'. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/1997/04/feature/uk9704125f.htm
The repressive and undemocratic nature of our anti union laws has been exposed by the spate of injunctions over the past 12 months in whichindividual Judges set aside democratic votes for strike action on spurious grounds. The retention of the Thatcherite labour laws after 3terms of Labour in power ranks as an historic failure by the labour movement, particularly for affiliated unions.
Yet for some on the right the current legal straitjacket is not enough. An academic makes the case in the Guardian's 'comment is free' blog that trade unions should lose immunity from damages for losses by employers resulting from strike action.
He casually dismisses the international conventions signed by Britain, he has no truck with a worker's right to strike and instead argues that the freedom to strike without financial repercussions is 'an extraordinary privilege': 'It is simply not good enough to declaim that the "right" to strike is supported by numerous international obligations into which the UK has entered. To do so just begs the question. Why should everyone, every individual and every corporation, be liable for the economic losses their actions cause to others, except when they are trade unions?' http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/15/trade-union-strike-immunity
