News Analysis - New attack on unions

WORKERS, OCT 2010 ISSUE

It is no coincidence that as the TUC convened in Manchester, the Policy Exchange report on “Modernising Industrial Relations” was published. The Policy Exchange think tank, established by Frances Maude MP had Michael Gove MP as its vice-chair. It is praised as the most influential think tank on the right and has advisers around Cameron, who calls it his “favourite think tank”.

“Modernising Industrial Relations” has a 17-point strategy for destroying the trade unions. This 2010 report equates to the Nicholas Ridley 1977 Economic Reconstruction Group which devised the strategy to destroy trade unionism in Britain’s then nationalised industries. The Ridley report became the blueprint of attack which Thatcher followed to the letter.

What are its seventeen proposals?

1. Build into the ballot paper information to undermine the ballot, limit industrial action to be entered into, make the ballot process even more open to legal challenge.


2. Require all employees to be balloted, not just union members – a practice from Poland and Slovakia. In addition to balloting all employees, have a 40 per cent minimum threshold of trade union members voting yes for action.


3. Remove laws that prevent employers using agency staff to scab during disputes.


4. Drop the period of protection from unfair dismissal for strikers from 12 to 8 weeks.


5. Extend the period of notice for strike action to a minimum of 14 days.


6. Ban strikes in public services – again using examples from Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary.


7. Undermine union recognition by ballots of all employees, scrap automatic recognition of workplaces with over 50 per cent of union members.


8. Require a trade union to have a minimum percentage of membership – say 10 per cent of a workforce – coupled with ballots of all employees before any ballot for industrial action can proceed. So a pre-ballot to undermine 2) above.


9. Empower employers to communicate directly with employees to undermine trade unions.


10. Enforce an annual third party audit of trade union membership.


11. Abolish the universal right to strike.


12. Use competition law to break monopoly in supply of labour.


13. Strengthen balloting processes to prevent national disputes based upon clustered ballots in the public sector.


14. Use competition law to undermine union services to union members and only one union in the workplace.


15. Remove any use of taxpayers’ money for funding trade unions, e.g. scrapping time off and facility arrangements for stewards.


16. Members to opt in to political funds.


17. No deduction of union subs from the pay packet.

So, a re-hash of proposals going back over 100 years laced with modern-day capitalist thinking in an attempt to make the functioning of trade unions well-nigh impossible.

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