At last month’s Tory Party Conference Chancellor George Osborne announced his plan to strip workers of rights in exchange for shares: "You the employee: replace your old rights of unfair dismissal and redundancy with new rights of ownership.... with a capital gains tax exemption would cover shares valued at between £2,000 and £50,000.”
It begs the question what price, if any, can be placed on fundamental trade union rights? £2,000, £50,000 or even £200,000? Many trade unionists would regard trade union rights as inalienable human rights – which cannot be bought, sold, or transferred from one individual to another.
