More motions on anti-strike laws from TUC Congress

We’ve already publicised motions from the RMT and FBU to the upcoming TUC Congress on the topic of anti-strike laws. Here, we republish other motions on the same issue from other unions.

Motion 01 Trade union and employment rights (Unite)

Congress condemns the renewed attack on trade union rights including proposals to undermine industrial action in the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill and calls for the repeal of all anti-union laws.

Congress also condemns the fact that trade union rights could also be undermined by other legislation such as the Public Order Bill and the Retained EU Law Bill.

Congress believes that attacks on trade union rights and on employment rights more widely further demonstrates the case for the devolution of employment law.

Congress notes that the House of Lords voted to exclude Scotland from the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) legislation, but this was overturned by the Tory majority in the House of Commons.

Congress also notes the letter to the UK parliamentary under secretary of state from the Scottish Government cabinet secretary for well-being economy, fair work and energy reiterating opposition to the Bill and calling for its abandonment.

Congress further notes that devolution of employment law is the policy of the Labour Party in Scotland and supported by the current Scottish Parliament.

Congress calls upon the General Council to oppose any new anti-trade union legislation and campaign for the:

i. repeal of all current anti-trade union legislation
ii. devolution of employment law to Scotland
iii. Labour government (if elected in the next two years) to repeal all anti-trade union laws within 12 months of gaining office
iv. introduction of a bill of rights providing positive employment and trade union rights – including strong rights to collectively bargain and to take strike action.

Amendment from Equity:

At the end of paragraph 2, insert the additional sentence: “Workers in many transnational and globalised industries are also denied meaningful rights to organise disputes or demonstrate solidarity internationally.”

Motion 02 Workers’ rights/trade union rights (NASUWT)

Congress is concerned that increasing use of insecure, intermittent and precarious employment relationships has resulted in widespread job insecurity and denies workers access to basic employment rights, many of which are at serious risk of being further eroded.

Conference asserts that anti-trade union restrictions represent a direct attack on workers’ rights to fair pay, decent jobs and good terms and conditions and must continue to be resisted.

Congress decries the fact that trade unions are subjected to draconian legislation that severely impacts on workers’ ability to organise and defend their rights at work.

Congress calls on the General Council to:
i. build coalitions to campaign against further restrictive trade union legislation
ii. build an appropriate industrial response to defend workers’ right to strike
iii. resist any further restrictive trade union legislation and demand:
– the repeal of all anti-union laws
– stronger rights for unions to access workplaces, win recognition, and establish collective bargaining rights
– the right for trade union members to vote online during industrial action ballots.

Amendment from Unison:

Insert new paragraph 4: “Congress congratulates the unions and the TUC who took the UK government to court and defeated new laws that allowed employers to use agency workers to break strikes. Congress agrees with the High Court that the government acted unfairly, unlawfully, and irrationally. Unions will always act to safeguard workers’ rights.”

Amendment from British Dietetics Association:

In final paragraph point iii., delete the first sub-point and replace with “the repeal of the Trade Union Act 2016 and all other anti-trade union legislation”. In final paragraph sub-point, replace full stop with comma and add at end: “and statutory elections for executive committees and general secretaries”.

Motion 05 Stop employer intimidation and defend the right to strike (UCU)

Congress notes the right, articulated under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, to join a union and participate in industrial action.

Congress condemns the actions of university employers making punitive deductions to UCU members’ salaries (up to 100 per cent of salary) for participating in lawful action short of strike action (including a marking and assessment boycott) in furtherance of their campaign to improve pay and conditions. Congress also condemns other employers using similarly draconian measures elsewhere to attempt to intimidate workers into not taking industrial action.

Congress believes this is part of a co-ordinated attack by employers, supported by the Conservative government, on the right of working people to advance their interests through industrial means.

Congress believes these attacks are designed to intimidate workers, especially those who are low-paid, casualised, women, disabled, alongside Black and migrant workers.

Congress applauds the bravery of UCU members in continuing their action short of strike action despite vindictive pay deductions.

Congress condemns all attacks on trade unionists right to participate in industrial action.

Congress calls on the TUC to lead:
i. an industrial campaign to defend the right to engage in all forms of industrial action
ii. a political campaign to lobby opposition parties to enshrine the right to strike in
statute and to repeal all anti trade union laws
iii. a public campaign to defend the right to participate in industrial action.

Read the full motions booklet below:

congress_2023_final_agenda_aw-3Download

TUC Congress: support RMT and FBU motions!

RMT and FBU have submitted motions to the upcoming TUC Congress (10-13 September, Liverpool) on the Minimum Service Levels Bill. We reproduce both motions below.

We encourage supporters to lobby their unions’ TUC delegations to support these motions. If passed, we need to ensure they’re enacted!

RMT motion (P03)

Congress notes that, not content with their complete betrayal of workers following the P&O scandal, the Tory Government’s Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill now represents the biggest attack on trade union rights and values since the 1900 Taff Vale judgement against one of RMT’s predecessors, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, which ruled unions could be sued and compelled to pay for damages for the impact of their strike action.

The new Bill compels unions to instruct members to comply with work notices to cross picket lines. Members not complying can be dismissed and unions not complying lose their immunity from prosecution.

Congress notes the Bill gives the government sweeping powers to extend minimum service levels across the economy, curtailing the ability of every trade union to protect their members during the ongoing cost of living crisis and beyond, indeed the International Labour Organisation has criticised the legislation as a threat to the fundamental rights of workers in Britain.

Congress agrees we must use all means necessary to defeat this unjust law and calls on the General Council to proactively seek to,

• Legally challenge the legislation;
• Coordinate demands from affiliates that employers, devolved governments, and local authorities do not issue work notices;
• Hold a national march opposing the legislation and calling for repeal of the anti-union laws
• Organise a Special Congress, size to be determined, to explore options for non-compliance and resistance;
• Mobilise support for any affiliate seeking assistance, whose union and members are sanctioned for non-compliance.

FBU motion (P04)

Congress condemns the Minimum Service Levels (MSLs) legislation, the most draconian attack on trade union rights in living memory.

Congress notes that the MSLs legislation effectively outlaws effective strike action in key sectors.

Congress agrees that we have no choice but to build mass opposition to the MSLs laws, including a strategy of non-compliance and non-cooperation to make them unworkable.

Congress welcomes Humza Yousaf’s pledge to the STUC congress that the Scottish Government “will never issue or enforce a single work notice” under the MSLs legislation.

Congress calls on all devolved administrations to refuse to implement the MSLs legislation and to work with the trade union movement to render them inoperable.

Congress further calls on Labour-led local authorities, mayors, fire authorities and other public bodies to refuse to implement the MSLs laws.

Congress welcomes calls by affiliates for mass demonstrations against the MSLs legislation and mandates the TUC to support these demonstrations.

Congress pledges 100% solidarity with any trade unions attacked under these MSL laws.

Congress supports the campaign for mass non-compliance, up to and including industrial action, to defeat these pernicious MSL laws.

Congress reaffirms its longstanding policy to campaign for the repeal of all anti-union laws and for positive legal rights for trade unions.

Congress calls on the next Labour government to immediately repeal MSLs, the Trade Union Act 2016 and take urgent steps to remove other anti-union laws.

Birmingham Strike Solidarity Committee meeting – 7pm, Thursday 31 August

Free Our Unions is pleased to be contributing to the next meeting of the Birmingham Strike Solidarity Committee, which will take place at 7pm on 31 August, in the Committee Room, Nortons 43-45, Meriden Street, Digbeth B5 5LS.

If you’re in the area, please join us!

Free Our Unions organising meeting – 7pm, Wednesday 9 August

Log in via Zoom here

Meeting ID: 835 3823 9276
Passcode: 683428

Join us for our next open organising meeting, held via Zoom at 7pm on Wednesday 9 August.

Our organising meetings are open to all supporters of the aims of our campaign. We’ll be discussing:

• Mobilising in our unions to prepare defiance to new anti-union laws
• A campaign to demand employers commit to refusing to issue work notices
• For supporters active in the Labour Party, campaigning to demand an incoming Labour government commits to repeal anti-union laws

Rally at TUC Congress, Liverpool: 1pm, Sunday 10 September

Free Our Unions is supporting the rally and lobby at the TUC Congress in Liverpool, initiated by the National Shop Stewards Network.

We see this as a further opportunity to build pressure inside our unions for an assertive response to the imposition of the Minimum Service Levels Bill, and to galvanise wider opposition to anti-strike laws.

The event takes place at 1pm at Premier Meetings, Liverpool Albert Dock, Liverpool L3 4AD. For more information, see the NSSN website here.

Minimum Service Levels law passes: demand repeal, prepare defiance!

The Tories’ Minimum Service Levels bill has now passed into law. That means the government, in collaboration with employers, now has the power to set “minimum service levels” in rail, health, education services, fire and rescue, border security and nuclear decommissioning.

In the event of strikes by workers in those sectors, employers can then issue “work notices” compelling workers to attend work to provide the minimum service. Unions which do not make “reasonable efforts” to ensure their members comply with work notices could face injunctions and possible fines. Individual workers could also be open to dismissal.

Free Our Unions believes the labour movement must continue and intensify campaigning against the law, on the basis of three key priorities:

Demands on employers to refuse to issue “work notices”

The legislation says employers “may” issue work notices, but not that they are legally obligated to do so. The SNP First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has already said the Scottish government will “never issue or enforce” work notices. Unions must demand that other employers make similar commitments.

An obvious first target for such demands is places where the employer either directly is, or is administered by, a political authority controlled by a party which opposes the law. So, local authorities controlled by anti-Tory parties could refuse to issue work notices in the event of strikes by education workers in local authority schools. The Labour-led Greater London Assembly under Mayor Sadiq Khan could refuse to issue work notices in the event of strikes by Transport for London workers. Labour mayoralties in Greater Manchester and Merseyside, which are directly involved in transport provision, could do likewise.

Islington’s Labour council has already passed a motion in support of “the right to strike”, although it stops short of an explicit commitment not to issue work notices.

These demands can be campaigned for politically, via union links to Labour and campaigns of lobbying and protest. But unions could also launch disputes and industrial action ballots, and potentially strikes, to pursue the demand. Such strikes would test the limits of existing laws designed to outlaw “political” strikes, which stipulate that strikes must arise from a “trade dispute” over workers’ terms and conditions between a union and an employer. But there is a strong legal argument that a strike to demand an employer in a sector covered by the minimum service law commits to refusing to issue work notices would be legitimate.

Prepare direct defiance

The first time a strike is called in an affected sector and a work notice issued, the union in question will be faced with a stark and unavoidable choice: will it make “reasonable efforts” to ensure its members comply, or will it refuse, and call on its members (all of them) to strike anyway, despite the risk of injunctions and fines?

Free Our Unions believes we must organise to ensure our unions choose the latter option. The only reliable way to make the law unworkable is to directly defy it. Mass collective action is also the best form of protection from reprisals for individual workers.

Continue to campaign politically for the repeal of all anti-strike laws

Most trade unions have longstanding policies opposing all anti-union laws and supporting their repeal. But there has been remarkably little active campaigning on the issue. Apart from a demonstration in October 2022 organised by Free Our Unions in conjunction with Earth Strike UK, some hastily-organised midweek demonstrations called by the RMT, and one by the TUC, have been the only public, on-the-streets activity in opposition to the Minimum Service Levels Bill.

Despite several unions having policies to call a national demonstration against anti-strike laws, none have done so. Such a demonstration if properly mobilised for, could still have an impact. It would send a message to the government that our movement will not simply accept the new law as a fait accompli, nor simply shrug and hope its impact is not too severe.

Specific campaigning to demand an incoming Labour government makes the widest possible commitment to repeal not only the newest law but all anti-strike laws is also needed. Without significant pressure, a Starmer-led Labour government is certain to compromise as much as possible with the status quo.

We must fight for a full right to strike – in the manner of our choosing, over issues of our choosing, at a time of our choosing.

Islington’s Labour council resolves to “defend the right to strike”

The Labour-led council in Islington, north London, has passed a motion committing the council to “defend the right to strike”. We republish the “resolves” section of the motion below.

We believe Labour councils, and other employers that oppose the Tories’ plans for new anti-strike laws, can go further, and say explicitly that they will not issue “work notices” compelling workers to work during strikes to provide a minimum service.

The SNP First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, has already said the Scottish government will never issue or enforce work notices. Labour authorities should follow this example.

This Council resolves:

  • To defend the right of workers to strike
  • Islington Council as an employer will do everything possible within in its powers to protect employees right to strike
  • To write to the Government to oppose the changes that will restrict workers’ right to strike
  • To show our full solidarity with striking workers, standing on the picket lines
  • To continue to support the TUC’s campaign to protect the right to strike
  • To continue to work collaboratively with our trade unions who represent our Council workers and encourage union membership to Islington residents.

Unite conference adds voice to national demo calls

The National Policy Conference of Unite, one of Britain’s biggest unions, has passed a number of motions reaffirming the union’s opposition to all anti-strike laws.

One, submitted by Free Our Unions supporters in Unite’s CYNFP Glasgow/Lanarkshire branch, also adds Unite’s voice to calls for a national demonstration against proposed and existing laws, which was also recently endorsed by RMT and FBU.

The text of the motion is below.

Conference re‐affirms its policy of opposition to all anti‐union laws, as adopted at the 2021 Policy Conference: to campaign for the repeal of all anti‐union laws; to defy the anti‐union laws through organised action if necessary; to rally to the aid of any union targeted by the anti‐union laws; to take the lead in campaigning for the repeal of all anti‐union laws if the TUC fails to initiate such a campaign.

Conference notes with concern the lack of progress in implementing the policy agreed at the 2021 conference, especially given threats of further anti‐union laws by the Tories and the impact of the anti‐union laws on strike action in response to the cost‐of‐living crisis, e.g. strikes prevented by the 50% threshold or called off because of threats of legal challenges. Conference therefore resolves to instruct the national Executive Committee to:

  • ensure that campaigning against the anti-union laws is an item on the agenda of every meeting of the national Executive Committee.
  • ensure that Unite produces hard‐copy and online educational materials explaining the need for the repeal of all anti‐union laws and explaining Unite policy on this issue, for circulation to all members.
  • encourage campaigning against the anti-union laws by all levels of our union, from national Executive Council to local branches.
  • approach other unions with similar policies on the anti‐union laws with a view to holding a national demonstration for the repeal of, and defiance of, all anti‐union laws.
  • use its position as Labour’s biggest trade union affiliate to campaign for Labour Party conference to re‐affirm existing policy for the repeal of all anti‐union laws and for inclusion of this policy in the next Labour general election manifesto, and to seek to work with other Labour‐affiliated unions to achieve these goals.

RMT to call national demo against anti-strike laws by October

The Annual General Meeting of the RMT has unanimously passed a motion from the union’s Bakerloo line branch, reaffirming the union’s strong opposition to all anti-strike laws, and committing to call a national demonstration by 28 October.

The motion also resolves to continue working with a number of campaigning organisations active on the issue, including Free Our Unions. We look forward to continuing to work with RMT to build opposition and defiance to restrictions on our rights to strike and organise.

We republish the text of the motion below.

FOR A NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ANTI-STRIKE LAWS

This AGM notes:

1. The ongoing strike wave, and the Tories’ plans to impose new anti-union laws in response.
2. Existing RMT AGM policy to call a national demonstration against anti-union laws.

This AGM believes:

1. To stand any chance of blocking the implementation of the new laws, an assertive campaign against them, and to demand a full right to strike, will be necessary. Even if the laws are passed, the labour movement will be in a far better position to confront and defy them if we have spent the period prior to implementation engaged in active campaigning to resist the laws.
2. Protests called by RMT, at Downing Street and in local constituencies, were a good start, and must be followed up with further action, including a national demonstration.
3. Such a demonstration should ideally be called by the TUC, or as wide-as-possible a coalition of unions, but if this cannot be achieved, must be called by those unions prepared to act.

This AGM resolves:

1. That RMT will organise a Saturday national demonstration against anti-strike laws, taking place no later than Saturday 28 October, with the following demands in line with Union Policy:

– No to new anti-strike laws
– Repeal all existing anti-strike and anti-union legislation
– For a full right to organise and strike
– Solidarity with all striking workers

2. To approach other trade unions and the TUC to invite co-sponsorship and participation in organising the demonstration.
3. To invite co-sponsorship and participation in organising the demonstration from relevant campaign groups backed by the union, including the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom, Free Our Unions, and the National Shop Steward Network.
4. To give the maximum degree of assistance and support to Regional Councils and branches in mobilising members and organising transport to the demonstration from their areas.