We’re sharing this briefing, written by a rank-and-file activist in the British Medical Assocation (BMA), about the fight for the right to take secondary (solidarity) action.
Legalising secondary action is within reach — so why aren’t the trade unions supporting it?
‘Secondary action’ is the term used to describe when workers go on strike in solidarity with other workers, for example when miners went on strike with NHS workers in 1982. Workers going on strike in solidarity with each other is a fundamental part of the labour movement, yet it has been unlawful in the UK since 1990.
This could be about to change however, as Lord Hendy has tabled an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill that seeks to legalise secondary action. So why has support from the labour movement in the UK been so muted?
The amendment will likely be discussed this Thursday 5 June, or next week – I am urgently asking rank and file trade unionists to demand their union bureaucrats support this amendment.
MP Zarah Sultana also tabled an amendment to legalise secondary action on 12 March, but this was not accepted.
Why is secondary action important?
Secondary action is at the core of the labour movement. It is workers working together, to build up enough power to win decent pay and conditions and other changes for wider society. Without secondary action, the labour movement is hardly a “movement”.
The law has been used to prohibit workers from coordinating together to improve their conditions for hundreds of years, but ultimately workers established that they did have a right to freely associate with each other in trade unions. In a free country, workers should be able to support other workers. We see different employers work together when they are in difficulty regularly, so it’s outrageous that workers are not allowed that same right to work together.
Lord Hendy has told us that the UK is almost unique in prohibiting secondary action. Only Luxemburg has similar prohibitions.
Proxy-employers, subcontracting and outsourcing
Secondary action has always been important to the labour movement, but with the growth of proxy employers, sub-contracting and outsourcing, the ability for workers to go on strike against an organisation which isn’t their ‘on-paper’ employer is more important than ever.
From a doctor’s perspective, many resident doctors are officially employed by regional “lead employers”. This has caused difficulties for us in taking strike action in response to policies imposed in our workplaces, since our workplace managers are not officially our employers.
Lack of support
Trade unionists rightly complain about the oppressive anti-trade union laws in the UK. However with the opportunity to support a radical change in the law to legalise secondary action now in front of us, support from the labour movement has been pretty muted.
Only the BMA and RMT have supported the amendment to legalise secondary action. The bureaucrats in other unions have been dragging their feet, not wanting to put their head above the parapet in calling for reinstatement of union rights.
The lack of support is most noticeable among the former TUC general secretaries who sit in the House of Lords. Why have John Monks, Frances O’Grady and Brendan Barber not signed the amendment? Why have Kay Carberry (former assistant general secretary of TUC) and Dave Prentis (former general secretary of Unison) not added their names either?
There is a lot of shameless hypocrisy going on. CWU and TUC have called a march on 18 June 2025 demanding “a new deal for workers”, but they’re not supporting the call for secondary action to be legalised [at least not publicly/openly, despite both having long-standing policy in support of the abolition of the ban on solidarity strikes].
On lobbying
I am not into “lobbying“. I believe that the power of workers is ultimately held in our willingness to organise in our workplaces. However in the UK at the moment, most trade unionists organise within recognised trade unions, and currently all trade unions in the UK are following the law in its prohibition of secondary action. Our trade union bureaucrats, who get paid decently from our union subscriptions, love to shout about “oppressive anti trade union law” and how they are ‘going to take bold action’. But when push comes to shove, they’re being silent. We need to hold them to account.
What you should demand your union does:
- Publicly declare their support for amendment 240 (legalising secondary action)
- Write to peers and MPs to ask them to support
- Ask that all former trade unionists in the house of Lords add their name to the amendment, and commit to supporting it
To do this you need to contact your union executive. If you can’t get in touch with your union executive then ask your regional or workplace reps to do so, and get them to show evidence that they have.
BMA briefings
An article on the history of solidarity strikes with NHS workers
This briefing is also available as a Google Document, here.
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