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www.rmt.org.uk :: may 2006 :: RMTnews 5 Activists carried RMT banners from across the country on May Day as part of the union’s lively contingent on the march from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square. RMT general secretary Bob Crow told the crowds that the tide of opinion had turned against those who wanted to stop working people winning justice at work. “Nine lots of vicious Tory anti-union laws were designed to disarm the unions and stop workers winning a fair deal at work. “As a result, two-thirds of British workers now have no collective protection against bosses who squeeze as much as they can get out of staff for as little as possible in return,” he said. He pointed out that today’s law was even more oppressive than 100 years ago, when the Trades Disputes Act once gave workers protection against imprisonment or having their unions’ funds seized for taking strike action. “In opposition, Labour MPs voted against every single one of those Tory anti-union laws, yet nine years into a Labour government they are still in place – and the prime minister has boasted that Britain’s union laws are the most restrictive in Europe. “We have to jump through legal hoops to take any strike action at all, solidarity action is simply illegal, and judges declare ballots invalid at the drop of a legal hat. “Yet employers are free to do what they want, bringing scab managers in from other companies to break strikes and even angling for handouts of taxpayers’ money to compensate them for lost revenue. “If we called on our members in other companies to take action to support their colleagues we would be marched off to jail and our assets confiscated,” he said. Around 150 MPs have now signed Early Day Motion 1170 supporting the Trade Union Freedom Bill which would establish basic trade-union rights. This includes the right to strike and take solidarity action, the right to be accompanied by a trade union rep and the removal of restrictive balloting and industrial-action notice procedures. MARCHING FOR TRADE UNION FREEDOM Thousands flocked to this year’s May Day rally in London to march for trade union freedom