The London Transport Region of the RMT union, which organises workers employed by Transport for London, London Underground, and subsidiary/outsourced companies, has passed a new resolution on fighting the anti-union laws.
Part of the resolution commits the region to supporting the new initiative, launched by the CWU Greater London Combined (telecoms) branch and supported by Free Our Unions, which aims to coordinate union activity to pressure Labour to go further on repealing anti-strike laws.
Free our unions: repeal all the anti-union laws
“New Labour tried to present their reforms as a final settlement. We have to categorically reject that. Our goal is to repeal the anti-union laws of the ’80s.” – Angela Rayner, 2014
Notes
1. Long-standing RMT policy supporting the abolition of all legal restrictions on unions’ right to organise and strike.
2. The likelihood of a Labour government.
3. That in discussion on the parameters of Labour’s “New Deal for Working People”, the pivotal issue of repealing the anti-trade union laws has tended to get lost.
4. Labour is committing (at the moment) only to repealing the Trade Union Act 2016 and the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023. These are only the latest in numerous anti-strike and anti-union laws going back to 1980.
5. That TUC Congress, many individual union conferences and Labour Party conference have voted repeatedly for repeal of all anti-union laws.
Believes
1. The trade union movement’s collective response and activity on this issue has so far been inadequate. The sole national demonstration on the issue was called in Cheltenham, rather than London, and was under-resourced in terms of mobilisation.
2. To resist anti-strike laws under the current Tory government, and/or to force significant concessions from an incoming Labour government, a much more active, visible, assertive campaign is necessary.
3. The whole labour movement, including unions like ours which are not affiliated to the Labour Party, must mount a combative campaign, now, to demand an incoming Labour government repeal all anti-union laws. We must not adopt a “wait-and-see” approach, but rather campaign assertively, now, to demand Labour goes further.
Resolves
1. To call on Labour to commit to repealing all anti-union and anti-strike laws, back to the 1980 Employment Act (and including the Public Order Act 2023), and replace them with strong positive legal rights for workers and unions, including strong rights to strike and picket.
2. To add our name to the statement along these lines initiated by CWU Greater London Combined telecoms branch (https://bit.ly/scrapantiunionlaws).
3. To write to CWU Greater London Combined branch proposing a joint planning meeting with a view to organising a demonstration in London.
4. To invite a speaker from the Free Our Unions campaign.
Free Our Unions 