Darren Williams of the PCS trade union said: “The Trade Union Bill is a blatant attempt to undermine unions’ ability to protect their members’ rights and interests”.
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The Conservatives’ Trade Union Bill, which will tighten rules on strike ballots and introduce curbs on picketing, will be debated in the House of Commons later today.
Unite leader Len McCluskey pledged that his union will oppose the Bill using “any means necessary”. It would seem that the goal of this is designed purely to weaken, already weakened trade unions.
“But instead of recognising our role, this Prime Minister seeks to paint the millions of trade unionists and their families as “the enemy within”, with a Tory party drunk on class prejudice, intent on destroying this movement as a force in British life”.
“This to me is a serious restriction of freedom of association”.
Presenting the Bill, Mr Javid said: “This is not about the Government versus the unions”.
But the most passionate speech came from RMT president Peter Pinkney, moving a hardline motion backed by the conference and calling for mass mobilisations and demonstrations and looking at the possibility of organising generalised strike action.
“We should get off our knees now and show them that we are right to strike”.
Far more people disagree than agree with the statement that “trade unions have too much power”.
The TUC Congress announced plans for a national day of action to be held against the Bill.
Picket lines are to have a “lead person” identified by an armband, who has given their details to police and employers.
But unions said the Bill was an attack on civil liberties, and would be strongly resisted. He said the mistrust between government and Labour Unions must stop and called on the unions to educate their members on the Labour Law.
Jon Skewes of the Royal College of Midwives warned that the measure allowing employers to hire agency workers to cover for strikers could threaten safety. According to them, the “legitimate exercise of the right to strike should not entail prejudicial penalties of any sort, which would imply acts of anti-union discrimination”.
“We will deliver – it’s what we do”, he said.
However, the government said under current laws, industrial action at ongoing disputes on London Underground and First Great Western could carry on for years.
But the Conservatives argue unions are often able to cripple public services without a mandate.
Civil servants were facing 11 years of pay restraint, coupled with increased pension contributions, forcing thousands to claim working tax credits, he told the conference.
“That’s why SNP MPs are doing everything we can to fight the introduction of this Dickensian Tory trade union Bill, which contains regressive policies more suited to the 19th century than the 21st”.
If strike figures are consulted for the past 100 years, it is clear that, apart from a few periods in the early 20th century (including the General Strike of 1926), and the 1970s, there has generally been more industrial peace than industrial unrest. “Get rid of it”.
It is the first time MPs will have had a chance to debate the proposals, which the unions have said they will fight “tooth and nail”.
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From the Private Finance Initiative rip-off to Foundation Trusts and the whole expensive “market” edifice, NHS unions have been there issuing warnings that have proved grimly prescient, as private providers fail, standards fall, bullying cultures maintain problems, poor leadership fails to respond to them, and cuts bite.
