The right to strike

So Boris Johnson wants to restrict strikes.  He wants to further toughen up the anti-trade union laws.

Johnson, the chair of Transport for London, used his Telegraph column to urge David Cameron to “consider a law insisting on a minimum 50% participation in a strike ballot”. The Conservative mayor accused Labour of trying to manipulate industrial unrest for political purposes, and pursuing a “nightmarish return to the politics of the 1980s”.

First the CBI and now Boris Johnson attacking the fundamental right of workers to withdraw their labour. The anti-trade union laws are already oppressive and now the establishment want to go further. If this reactionary lot get their way we will be living in a very nasty, subservient and destructive society. The message people should take is organise and resist or be destroyed.

In the meantime,  John McDonnell MP is sponsoring the Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill as his private members Bill in Parliament. The Bill would tackle the increasing practice by employers of using minor technical errors in the balloting process – which have no material effect on the outcome – to take unions to court in order to prevent them from taking industrial action.

John McDonnell MP said:
We have seen in the current BA Cabin Crew dispute and many other recent disputes, employers have been able to exploit loopholes in the existing law by using minor technical errors in a trade union ballot to thwart trade unionists from taking strike action. This resort to the courts by some ruthless employers is bringing current employment law into disrepute and undermining industrial relations in this country. This cannot be right and in the interests of good industrial relations needs to be addressed.

The Bill is being debated in Parliament on Friday 22 October, and requires 100 MPs to attend the debate and to vote for it. If you have a Labour MP, please lobby them to attend and vote for the Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill.

And let me take this opportunity to show solidarity to RMT members who are on strike today.

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