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 t
he 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 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.
