Anti-union laws

Organised by the United Campaign For Trade Union Rights Saturday November 13, 2004, 11am Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: Tony Benn, Bob Crow GS RMT, Chair of United Campaign Carolyn Jones Director I.E.R, John Hendy QC, Joint Secretary United Campaign, Tony Woodley GS T&GWU, Mark Serwotka GS PCS, Maria Exall National Executive Council Member CWU, Ass Secretary United Campaign, Steve Cottingham OH Parsons, United Campaign Legal Advisers Committee, Jeremy Dear GS NUJ INVITED SPEAKERS: Ruth Winters National President FBU, Rosie Eagleson GS AMO, Steve Kemp National Secretary NUM, Eddy Grimes Cooks Engineering Dispute, AMICUS NEC Member, Judy McKnight GS NAPO, John McDonnell MP ‘If the movement does not go on the offensive with its ideas and vision, there will is left a void which is filled only by the ideas and vision of its enemies’ Repeal anti-union laws Bob Crow explains why outdated Tory anti-union laws must go THE late Labour Party leader John Smith promised rights from day one. We are still waiting. There is nothing in current government thinking on trade union laws that suggests that their minds will be changed any day soon. This insistence of clinging to out- dated draconian Tory anti-trade union laws means that millions of people are deprived of rights enshrined in international law. Last year the United Nations International Labour Organisation said that such discrimination was in breach of the European convention on human rights, which Britain signed in 1950. No wonder that Margaret Thatcher is so proud of Tony Blair. There has been some progress on winning extra leave for workers and the recognition of the right of trade unions to expel fascists and racists, but we still suffer some of the harshest anti- union laws in the western world. For instance, employers enjoy the right to sack workers who take strike action after 12 weeks, yet they can bus in as many managers as they like to break strikes. We must ask the obvious question: why can’t trade unionists take similar action in support of their colleagues? In their review of the Employment Relations Act the government also does not propose to change a situation where a staggering 85 per cent of workplaces are excluded from the legal right to union recognition. While Blair and his mate, the new unelected European Commissioner Peter Mandelson, cheerfully promote EU rules which demand the wholesale deregulation of the economy, they refuse point-blank to implement fully, the social charter that protects the right to organise. Contrary to popular belief, the proposed EU constitution does not universally protect the right to strike. Article II-28 makes it quite clear that this right shall be “in accordance with national laws and practices”. This illustrates once more that there is a very real need to fight for basic rights and for them to be democrat- ically enshrined in law. In opposition, Labour opposed every single piece of anti-union legislation. If these laws were wrong then, there are wrong now and should be repealed. Rally: The Fight For a Workers’ Charter Campaign for Change 17 PHOTO: Andrew Wiard