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Unfair, Unnecessary and Undemocratic

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Last week the government published its Trade Union Bill – a grossly unfair package of measures that will tip the balance of power in the workplace.

The proposals will make getting a much-needed pay rise, stopping job losses or negotiating better conditions at work much more difficult. They’ll make it harder for unions to do their day-to-day job of dealing with problems in the workplace before they escalate into disputes. And they’ll stifle protests against cuts to public services, like closures of SureStart centres, libraries and care services.

Politicians often say that the alternative to strikes is talking, but there is a difference between talking and negotiating. You only get real negotiation when there is power on both sides of the table. Collective bargaining works because both sides understand what the other can deliver. This is why the vast majority of ballots do not result in strikes but a negotiated deal.

The government’s plans for union ballots will make legal strikes close to impossible. The architects of these plans know that union ballots, particularly of large dispersed workforces, rarely meet a 50 per cent threshold, and that a turnout threshold does not even test the level of support for a strike. 

If the government was interested in boosting workplace democracy it would allow online balloting which would help bring ballots into the 21st century.

Online balloting can be safe and secure much like online banking. There is no reason not to introduce it.

What the proposals are really about is stopping opposition to the Conservative’s plans to cut hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs over this parliament.

Unions too often are the last line of defence on these issues.  And the government want to make it more difficult for ordinary people; fire-fighters, nurses, midwives, and teachers to express their democratic wishes and to take industrial action in defence of their jobs and pay.

The government wants unions to fail. Even when ballots meet the new thresholds, employers will now be allowed to break strikes by bringing in agency workers.

Lifting the ban on the use of agency workers during strikes – that has been in place since 1973 – shows that ministers want to create an uneven playing field.

Allowing agency workers to be used in this way will make difficult employment relations even worse.

Turning agency workers into strike breakers is also an appalling situation to put the agency workers in – most will hate being put in this position; some may not realise until it is too late that they are being asked to break a strike. If they refuse to work they will almost certainly not be offered future work.

Good agencies and good employers are unlikely to want anything to do with this practice.

The Conservatives strike plans are the most aggressive assault on basic labour rights anywhere in the developed world and will impact on union and non-union members alike.

It is essential that all fair-minded democrats fight them and stop this Bill.

Beth Farhat

Regional Secretary Northern TUC

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