What will the Tory Trade Union Bill mean for YOU?

Headlines on the new Trade Union Bill and subsequent blog postings have concentrated on the threat to strike action, through the new thresholds on ballots, and on the new laws regarding picketing and strike breaking. The ability of workers to exercise the right to withdraw their labour is under threat as never before, and opposition to the bill is rightly unanimous throughout the trade union movement. The current anti trade union laws in this country are outwith international law as defined in the ILO conventions and the changes make a bad situation worse.

As local stewards however it is easy to share the outrage and then assume that the impact on the way that we go about the everyday activities that we take for granted will be minimal. The grievances and disciplines, the representation over reorganisations, the local campaigning will all still continue as long as the members still have problems and we represent the workforce. The truth unfortunately is that our role will be significantly changed, and as UNISON is based primarily on lay organisation at a local level, we will be drastically curtailed in our ability to act on behalf of our members. The devil, as always, is in the detail.

Defend the right to strike – under threat at home and abroad

Today a global day of action in defence of the right to strike is being called to highlight the serious attacks on fundamental union rights. The Institute of Employment Rights reports that the employers’ group at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is challenging the very existence of the right to strike, established under ILO Convention 87. Meanwhile a serious assault on the right to strike will be in the Tory general election manifesto with proposed minimum requirements in strike ballots of 50% turnout and 40% of all workers balloted to vote in favour – impossible hurdles to mount in large scale national ballots. Tory relic, Lord Tebbit, himself an architect of anti union laws in the early 1980’s, smugly pointed out in the Daily Telegraph this week the failure of the labour movement to deliver on pledges to reverse those attacks. The balance of power shifted against unions and quickly became a matter of political consensus. We must not let history repeat itself.

Tory plans will put public service unions in a legal straitjacket

Tory manifesto proposals to impose a minimum turnout (50%) and a minimum threshold of support (40% of all those balloted) will make it impossible for unions to conduct ‘lawful’ industrial action in large public service bargaining groups. Put simply, on a 50% turnout an 80% yes vote will be required otherwise the ballot will be legally invalid. An acceptable response to this attack on union rights has now gone well beyond the development of positive policies (such as on line voting and workplace ballots) and requires a sustained political campaign exposing the proposed measures as a severe attack on our democratic and human rights. It requires unions to urgently develop new strategies to challenge these attacks on our right to defend our jobs, pay and conditions.
   It is perverse that the political elite can accept as valid opinion polls based on a fraction of 1% of the electorate yet deem turnouts of say 40% as unrepresentative of a large workforce. Taken together with the imposition of expensive fees to access Employment Tribunals, attacks on time off for union reps, removal of DOCAS etc, it is clear that the Tories are working towards an end game of destroying trade unionism in Britain's public services.

Italian unions stage General Strike in defence of workplace rights

Yesterday Italian unions staged a General Strike in protest at the Jobs Act which seeks to deregulate employment rights by weakening national bargaining and removing protections against unfair dismissal.

CGIL leader Susanna Camusso addressing a strike rally in Turin said: 'The government has to change its policies on employment. The Jobs Act and the budget do nothing to revive the economy and create jobs' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30447158

Gaping gaps in Labour's proposals for enhanced workers' rights

#workplacepledge As next May's General Election draws closer, the outlines are emerging of Labour's proposals on workers' rights. Announcements on raising the minimum wage and the banning 'exploitative' zero hours contracts are welcome but fall far short of what is necessary. The least we should expect in Labour's 2015 manifesto is the reinstatement of collective and individual rights removed by the Coalition government, in particular a reduced qualifying period for unfair dismissal and other rights, the abolition of employment tribunal fees and a reversal of the reduction in redundancy consultation periods.
    A new campaign called 'a Pledge for every worker' sets out a useful framework for Labour enhancing workplace rights but, as any lawyer will tell you, precision matters in drafting offers and now is the time for specific commitments on fairness at work from Labour rather than abstractions or aspirations.
http://www.workplacepledge.org/blog/british-workers-trapped-climate-insecurity-writes-stephen-cavalier

Pickled Eric knows the cost of everything & the value of nothing

Tory union basher Eric Pickles MP has stepped up his war against local government unions. In March 2013, dancing to the tune of the Taxpayers Alliance, Pickles issued advice to local authorities on reducing trade union facility time. Now he has ratcheted up the attack with new requirements on councils to publish the cost of trade union facility time and numbers of union representatives involved. His so called transparency code will not require the benefits and purpose of trade union facility time to be published. The rabid right winger has previous form for union bashing. Back in September 2013 he failed in his attempt to end union subscription check off in his own DCLG department - when PCS won a legal challenge – Pickles’ obsessive anti trade unionism costing the public purse £90000.

European Commission offensive against workers' rights

The TUC's Stronger Unions blog reports on the final report of the European Commission's so called 'High Level Group on Administrative Burdens' which recommends a range of deregulatory measures including 'calling for targets for reducing regulatory costs, ensuring that any new costs are balanced with reductions elsewhere and a “think small first” principle exempting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from EU obligations as far as possible.' Alongside the Commissions REFIT programme which is blocking any new health and safety directives and the UK Tory EU reform agenda, the neo liberal direction of the 'European project' is becoming clearer by the day:
http://strongerunions.org/2014/10/14/the-dead-hand-of-the-european-de-regulators/

Workers’ rights under attack in Italy

‘We want to eliminate the poison that kills investment’ said Italian politician Giuliano Poletti in a debate this week in the Italian senate. Poletti, the labour minister in the supposed centre left Democratic Party led Government, was referring to redundancy protection and other employment rights long enshrined in Italy’s labour code. The main Italian union centre CGIL is pledged to fight the so called Jobs Act and will be holding a national demonstration in Rome on 25 October:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/09/italy-pm-matteo-renzi-wins-confidence-vote-labour-reforms

Workplace rights are being priced out of existence

A new report from the TUC - What Price Justice? - shows how since the introduction of fees in July 2013 there has been a 79 per cent fall in overall claims taken to employment tribunals, with women and low-paid workers the worst affected. One year on, the worst fears of trade unions are being realised and workplace rights are being priced out of existence. In business and Tory Party circles much is said about 'regulatory barriers' yet they have hypocritically introduced a fees regime to block enforcement of legal rights for workers. All in support of their preferred 'hire and fire' flexible labour market:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/TUC_Report_At_what_price_justice.pdf

Tebbit resurfaces to attack collective union rights

The Tory world view regards collectivism as a threat to civil liberties. This explains their fundamental opposition to trade unions. In 1975 Tory MP Norman Tebbit accused the Labour employment minister Michael Foot of 'pure undiluted fascism' for upholding the primacy of collective agreements in a unionised workplace. Tebbit went on to become an arch ally of Margaret Thatcher in rolling back union rights.
   As Tory employment minister he introduced the landmark Employment Act 1982 in order to, in his words, 'redress the imbalance of bargaining power' by narrowing the definition of a legal strike and outlawing solidarity action. Now Tebbit has surfaced to invoke his 1982 legislation as a smarter way than ballot thresholds to 'restrain the extremists of the union movement' and proposes that union immunity from civil action for damages arising from a strike be conditional on 'a minimum percentage of the relevant workforce and possibly a minimum turnout' rather than an outright ban on strikes not meeting those requirements:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100279650/the-trade-union-extremists-must-be-curbed-but-making-unsupported-strikes-criminal-could-backfire/

The Queen’s Speech 2014 – Sleepwalking into oblivion

Google searches sometimes provide the most unusual results, in this case by providing a link to the Queens Speech under “Arts and Entertainment”. This proves one of two things - either Google has a sense of humour or is a sadist, because there was nothing entertaining about this legislative programme.
  This government revels in its declaration of the green shoots of recovery, proclaiming that the economy is improving  and that everything is getting better. Meanwhile in the real world the percentage of those working but living in poverty continues to increase, as demonstrated by the increases in those in work claiming housing benefit.

First they came for the Police Federation? Not quite..

Does Theresa May’s authoritarian attack on the non-TUC Police Federation last week herald an intensification of the Tories’ war on trade unions? The Guardian appears to think so - ‘it's a fair bet that, if they are in power again after next May's general election, they will go after other public sector unions, the Prison Officers Association, Napo, and the Fire Brigades Union; before long even Unison and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) could be under siege.’

Tory plan to restrict the right to strike

The prime minister yesterday revealed that a future Conservative government will introduce strike ballot thresholds in essential services – although it is not yet clear whether new laws will require at least 50% of affected workers to cast votes in a strike ballot or an absolute majority of those workers balloted to support strike action. There has been sustained lobbying for more anti union legislation from Tory MPs and big business, notably the Institute of Directors which has published a raft of proposals to restrict the right to strike, the first of which is a so called ‘double lock-in vote’ – a requirement that 50% of union members balloted must support strike action as well as a majority of those voting. This will be an impossible hurdle to overcome in large scale national ballots.

New poll backs right to strike

Conventional political wisdom, including in New Labour circles, suggests that strikes by public sector workers are irresponsible and unpopular with the public. A recent Populus poll, commissioned by the BBC, revealed strong support for the right to strike and for the statement ‘striking is legitimate in an industrial dispute if in a ballot of union members the majority of those voting call for it’. However, long term polling confirms the marginalisation of trade union political influence with only 1% of the public mentioning unions/strikes as an important issue facing Britain. On a more positive note 76% see unions as ‘essential to protect workers’ interests’.

Carr Review - a stunt or fast track to new anti union laws?

On Friday the UK Government’s announcement that the Carr Review into industrial relations (launched 5 months ago following the Grangemouth dispute) would focus narrowly on union tactics rather than wider issues such as employer blacklisting of trade unionists as originally envisaged. This led TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady to once again dismiss the review as a ‘headline grabbing party-political stunt’.
    However, Carr’s terms of reference - which are to ‘provide an assessment of the alleged use of extreme tactics in industrial disputes and the effectiveness of the existing legal framework to prevent inappropriate or intimidatory actions’ - appear to be leading directly to new anti union laws in particular a clamping down on protest by workers to win wider community and political support. Coming hard on the heels of the Lobbying Act which according to David Cameron was expressly intended to stifle union influence in general elections, this review could well result in further draconian restrictions on the freedom of expression for trade unions in the UK. There are no grounds for complacency.

New campaign to tackle 'endemic homophobia' in UK workplaces

A joint study of more than 1200 workers by Manchester Business School and Plymouth University has found that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) workers are twice as likely to experience bullying in the workplace as their heterosexual colleagues. It found that one in 10 of those who described themselves as LGB had been discriminated against in the past year, compared to one in 20 heterosexuals. Last month Stonewall launched a national campaign to tackle endemic levels of homophobia in Britain’s workplaces. Featuring two people at work, the campaign states clearly that: ‘One is gay. If that bothers people, our work continues’.
http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2014/02/lgb-employees-are-twice-as-likely-to-be-victims-of-bullying/
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/what_we_do/9361.asp

High Court upholds Con Dem attack on workplace rights

'In this country, we don’t walk on by when people are sick when people lose work when people get old'' claimed David Cameron in his speech on Scottish independence yesterday. The hypocrisy of the aloof and smug millionaire was laid bare on the same day when the High Court rejected UNISON’s challenge to the Government’s decision to introduce employment tribunal and employment appeal tribunal fees. Yes Prime Minister, it's true you don't walk on when workers lose jobs. You put your jackboot on their throat instead:
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/unison-appeal-disappointing-judicial-review-decision-on-tribunal-fees

Canadian unions stand on a precipice

James Clancy, President of Canadian public services union federation NUPGE, reflects on the stark challenges facing trade unions in Canada: 'we stand now on a precipice. What happens over the next two years will likely seal labour's fate for decades to come. We will emerge either stronger than ever or broken almost beyond repair. It is an exciting but also terrifying moment. If there's ever been a time for us to speak up loudly about why unions matter - and to actively support politicians who do the same - it is now. If we don't, we will doom our children, grandchildren and perhaps even our great grandchildren to more poverty, discrimination, and authoritarianism'
http://nupge.ca/content/11392/presidents-commentary-we-stand-precipice-we-must-speak-and-loudly-about-why-unions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=theM-xmR_yI

Maude - Confessions of a union buster

Egged on by the Tory hard right in front organisations such as the Trade Union Reform Campaign (chaired by discredited MP Aidan Burley), the Con Dem government has set about systematically ending trade union activity in the public sector. Civil service unions have borne the brunt of this offensive and Francis Maude MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, writing on the conservative home website, sets out the extent to date of the attacks on union organisation:

Lobbyists welcome passing of Lobbying Bill while civil society mourns - but trade unions the real target

It seems the world’s turned upside down when professional lobbyists welcome yesterday’s passing of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill while charities and voluntary groups raise concerns at the refusal of the House of Lords to exclude them from its scope. However in truth the target of the legislation is neither the parasitic lobby industry nor the third sector but the trade union movement. This was confirmed by the Prime Minister himself in Parliament on 4 September last year ‘We all know what is going on—they do not want the trade unions brought within the law; they want the trade unions to go on spending millions after millions trying to alter an election campaign, rather than having them properly controlled by the law. That is what the lobbying Bill is about’ (Hansard, 4 September 2013).
Labour must make a priority of repealing this anti democratic, anti trade union law.
For more on the Lobbying Bill read here: http://unisonactive.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Lobbying