NO COMPLIANCE WITH NEW TORY LAWS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2023 :: RMTnews 8 RMT won support at TUC Congress to oppose draconian Minimum Services legislation, pledging to explore options of non-compliance with the new Tory laws. Delegates from across the trade union movement unanimously backed the call to resist the legislation and to organise a special congress with other unions to focus on what methods of non- compliance can be pursued. Amongst the demands the TUC general council will take forward include legally challenge the legislation, coordinate demands that employers, devolved governments, and local authorities do not issue work notices, call a national march calling for repeal of the anti- union laws, organise a special Congress to explore non- compliance and resistance and mobilise support for anyone sanctioned for non- compliance. Speaking to rapturous applause at Congress, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "The notion we will identify our members to tell them to go to work or tell our picket supervisors to instruct their work mates to go past their own picket line, is a nonsense. We will not be complying with that and we will not do it. "That's got to be the message from this Congress. Our stance is non-compliance - that's what it says and that's what we have got to deliver. "We need a special congress and we have to work out what we will have to do to not comply. "Let's not accept this meekly, meek compliance with this legislation is the road to oblivion for this movement. "Nobody remembers those that comply with oppression. People remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the chartists and the miners - not because they gave in but because they fought back. "That's the message and that's what we have to do. We are fighting workers movement and we are going to turn this legislation over and defeat it in the workplace and on the streets," he said. At fringe event hosted by the Trade Union Coordinating Group (TUCG), Mr Lynch emphasised the importance of voting Labour at the next general election. "The Labour policy is for the re-nationalisation of the railways. And the new deal for workers is something we can all support. Of course, it is not perfect but that's why they call it a struggle - it goes on and on. "The new deal for workers has to be undiluted and unfiltered.” Mr Lynch added that workers have never had a legal NO COMPLIANCE WITH NEW TORY LAWS