Civil Rights and the Trade Union Bill

I've written a piece on the Tories' new Trade Union Bill and opposition to it, which has been published here.

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Protect the right to strike

The Tories' new Trade Union Bill is a massive attack on civil rights, from the right to strike to freedom of expression and assembly.

TUC General Secretary Fraces O'Grady has produced a short video as part of the campaign against it:

The TUC has also produced a briefing on the proposals.  This is well worth a read, because the government's proposals go much further than the Bill itself.  Many of the worst aspects are contained in the linked consultation documents and in amendments to the regulations governing temp agencies to allow them to supply scabs during a strike.

The TUC is organising a rally and lobby of parliament on Monday 2nd November which everyone should build and attend.  It's also worth getting involved with campaigns such as the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom and Right To Strike.

As Len McCluskey argued so powerfully at the Unite Rules Conference, many workers are also going to have to be ready to break this unjust law if it passes or be unable to resist their employer successfully.

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Everyone to Manchester on 29 September - Save the NHS, No to Austerity

The Tories are in Manchester for their conference on 29th September.  UNITE, the TUC, other unions and campaigns are organising a national demonstration in defence of the NHS and against austerity.  Everyone should throw themselves into building this - a big demo can boost confidence to take the action we will need to stop the Tories and their Lib Dem props.

The TUC information about the demo is here: www.nhs299.org.

The UNITE information about the demo (including transport details from round the country) is here: www.unitetheunion.org/saveournhs.

UNITE has produced a video explaining some of the issues around the cuts and privatisation of the NHS to encourage people to come on the demo:

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Bedroom tax and Tory rat-bags - great heckling

Well done to UNITE activist Willie Black and the rest of the protesters who gave Iain Duncan Smith a proper welcome to Scotland today:

This BBC report shows more of Willie in action.

Protests against the hated bedroom tax, which will hit disabled people particularly hard, are spreading and growing, as is reflected on the Benefit Justice Campaign's web site.  It's good to see UNITE's relatively new Community organisation getting stuck in to the campaign too.

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Government attack on redundancy rights

Yesterday the government announced its plans to cut the minimum period for employers consulting their employees before making large scale redundancies from 90 days to 45 days.  It's already easier to cut jobs in the UK than in many other countries, but the Tories and Lib Dems want to make it easier still.

The 90 day period only applies where an employer plans to dismiss 100 or more staff through redundancy in one establishment, so this change only affects bigger employers.

I was pleased to see that UNITE promptly put out a press release attacking the move.  This is an issue we should take into the workplaces too.  Many employees, whether union members or not, know from bitter experience how important the consultation period is for protecting jobs.  We need to mobilise them against this threat.

The consultation period is supposed to allow employees, usually through their unions, to get information from the employer and put forward ideas for avoiding the redundancies, reducing the numbers of redundancies, and mitigating the consequences of the redundancies if they go ahead.  This process often does save jobs.  Cutting the time available means fewer jobs will be saved.

The consultation period is also useful for individuals.  It gives them time to consider their options, to seek redeployment within the company and to look for work outside.  In my own workplace we have negotiated time periods better than the existing legal minimum and this has been a major factor in securing redeployment within the company for many staff.  Shorter consultation periods mean fewer redeployments, more lives wrecked and employers wasting more money making staff redundant and then hiring new ones.

There's another factor in this which unions need to take very seriously indeed.  The change would, when combined with the anti-union laws, make it extremely difficult for members to take lawful industrial action in defence of jobs.  The anti-union laws require the union to provide the employer with an accurate breakdown of the numbers and categories of members to be balloted 7 days before a ballot opens.  Preparing this can take weeks.  Ballots rarely run for less than two weeks, after which the union has to give another 7 days notice to the employer before lawful industrial action can begin.  So even if the union is perfectly prepared and can issue the notice of ballot instantly, without any checking of membership records (pigs might fly) you still need a minimum of about 4 weeks before action can begin.  If the government goes ahead with this I foresee more and more workers feeling that the anti-union laws give them no way of defending their jobs lawfully and deciding to take unofficial action instead.

I heard one government spokes-idiot referring to the proposed change as getting a better balance between employers and workers.  The employer-employee relationship is an inherently unequal one and rarely more so than in a redundancy situation.  Can workers decide to make their bosses redundant?  Yet the Tories and Liberal Democrats obviously think that the feeble employment protection workers currently enjoy gives workers too much power in the relationship and it needs to be reduced!  Is it too much to ask that Labour's front bench vigorously oppose this?

The proposals are fully in tune with the overall government approach, which sees working tax credits and other benefits being cut for the poorest, while corporation tax is cut for their city mates.

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Busy days in Manchester

There's a busy few days coming up for the trade union movement in Manchester.

On Saturday, there's a rank-and-file meeting of electricians at noon in Manchester's Mechanics Institute, building the campaign in construction against major contractors trying to back out of the JIB agreement, deskill the work and dramatically slash pay.

On Sunday, we have the TUC "March for the Alternative" at the Tory conference in Manchester (route map), assembling at noon. This is followed by a Right To Work post-demo rally, back at the Mechanics Institute.

On Monday, UNITE members at API Holographics in Salford are due to strike again in a dispute over a pay freeze. This UNITE press release includes the address of their picket-line for those who can show support.
[Update 2/10/10: Heard on the march today that tomorrow's strike at API Holographics has been suspended as the company has offered further talks]

On Tuesday, UNITE members at Fujitsu in Manchester and Salford are striking again as part of our long-running dispute over breaches of agreements and victimisation of reps. Details of the pickets and the protest planned outside the Tory conference to coincide with the CEO speaking at a fringe meeting are here.

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UNITE announces free transport to 2 October March for the Alternative

Yesterday UNITE announced it is paying for transport to the TUC's March for the Alternative at the Tory party conference in Manchester on 2nd October. Details are here.

Recent economic news bears out UNITE's arguments that far from helping the economy, the governments cuts and austerity are jeopardising the recovery.

A big demo on Sunday 2 October will help strengthen every campaign, including the ballots planned across the public sector and beyond for action on 30th November. Every member should do their best to attend and bring their workmates, family and friends.

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Red tape or justice? The threat to employment rights

We already have some of the worst employment legislation in the developed world, thanks to New Labour's failure to repeal anti-union legislation and its continual pandering to the big-business lobby. But while New Labour failed to do much to help working people, the cabinet of Con-Dem millionaires has no such scruples about helping their class.

Employment Tribunals have never provided justice. The starkest example is the fact that a tribunal can order an employer to reinstate someone who they unfairly dismissed, but the employer is free to defy that order and pay (inadequate) compensation instead. If someone steals property, rather than someone's job, they are expected to give it back - but the law treats a worker's livelihood as far less important than property.

But the Tories and their Lib-Dem supporters want to make things even worse. They regard it as unfair, unreasonable "red-tape" that an employer who unfairly dismisses an employee can be legally challenged at all, and want to remove this meagre protection from around 3 million workers who have been employed for between one and two years.

That's 3 million more reasons to kick out this rotten government.

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