‘KILL THE BILL’

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2021 :: RMTnews 22 50 years ago this month on March 1 1971 as many as 1.5 million people across Britain took part in an unofficial day of protest against the Tory government’s new anti-trade union Bill known as the Industrial Relations Act. Large ‘Kill the Bill’ protests also took place in London and Glasgow against the Bill, which included proposals for compulsory strike ballots, cooling-off periods before any industrial action, a ban on solidarity action, an end to the closed shop as well as tighter controls on union agreements. Unions represented on the march included rail workers, boilermakers, printers and electrical workers. Postal workers, who had been on strike for six weeks, also joined the protest and no national newspapers were printed. Ever since the Trade Disputes Act 1906, which established legal rights and protections for trade unions, British trade unions had been largely free from excessive state control, so that they had been able to develop their own relations with employers, negotiating directly over terms and conditions and dispute resolution. Therefore the Industrial Relations Act 1971 effectively swept aside the main method of collective bargaining that had worked with varying degrees of success for both sides of industry for many decades. Nevertheless the Bill was approved by MPs in August 1971 but that wouldn’t be the end of the story. Edward Heath’s Tory government had come to power in 1970 determined to make workers pay for inflation through the implementation of wage restraint in order to restore the profitability of British capitalism. However this was premised on the successful application of the anti-strike provisions of the Industrial Relations Bill, published in December of that year. Sweeping aside the legal protection in place since the 1906 Trades Dispute Act, unions would lose all immunity from being sued by employers in the civil courts if they were not registered and their union rule books had not been approved by the state. A National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC) was established to hear cases relating to the Act. The previous Labour government had also attempted to introduce legislation attacking union rights regarding strikes and collective bargaining, known as In Place of Strife, but had been forced to back down opposition from the unions. The TUC refused to back strike action against the 1971 Act but backed a series of protest meetings. On February 21 1971 up to 200,000 trade unionists participated in a national demonstration from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, the biggest since the Chartist protests 140 years earlier. The Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions (LCDTU), established to oppose In Place of Strife, played a key role in organising the action and attracted many militant shop stewards who, numbering over 200,000, played a key political role at the time. In September 1971 the TUC voted to require its member unions not to comply with the provisions of the Act including registering as a union. The Transport and General Workers Union was twice fined for contempt of court over its refusal to comply. Campaigning against the Act eventually coalesced around individual workers. When the Pentonville Five were arrested for refusing to appear before the National Industrial Relations Court and imprisoned in the summer of 1972, there was an outcry and their case received great publicity support. Eventually, the hitherto unheard of ‘Official Solicitor’ intervened to order their release. RAIL WORKERS The rail worker’s pivotal role in the defeat of the hated Act began in early 1972 when the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) declared solidarity action in support of a strike by the National Union of Miners (NUM) for a pay rise and instructed its members not to carry out work normally ‘KILL THE BILL’ Railway workers played a crucial role in defeating the Industrial Relations Act 50 years ago PROTEST: National demonstration and rally against the proposed Industrial Relations Act in December 1970. © Gail Clarke Hall/Report IFL Archive/reportdigital.co.uk