WE NEED THE RIGHT TO ORGANISE AND STRIKE! REPEAL THE ANTI-UNION LAWS FREE OUR UNIONS

The below statement was initiated by Lambeth Unison and has since been endorsed by a number of other branches, including two RMT branches and the London Transport Regional Council. Please consider discussing the issues, and proposing the statement for endorsement at your branch.

We need abolition of the anti-trade union laws, which hamstring workers organising and taking action, and their replacement with strong legal workers’ rights. Otherwise we are fighting the challenges of low pay, insecurity and lack of rights with our hands tied behind our backs.

We applaud the 2017 Labour Party conference’s unanimous call for repeal of not just the 2016 Trade Union Act, but also the “anti-union laws introduced in the 1980s and 90s” by the Tories and maintained after 1997; and for a “strong legal charter of workers’ rights”. “For unions to be effective workers need an effective right to strike”. This builds on the unanimous 2015 decision that the next Labour government should “legislate for strong rights to unionise, win recognition and collective bargaining, strike, picket and take solidarity action”.

We will campaign for:

• Complete and speedy repeal of all anti-union laws.
• Strong legal rights for workers to join, recruit to and be represented by a union; strike/take industrial action by a process, at a time and for demands of their own choosing, including in solidarity with any other workers and for broader social and political goals; and picket freely.
• The right to reinstatement for workers found to have been sacked unfairly. A complete ban on dismissal for industrial action, however long it lasts. Full rights from day one of a job.
• Strong rights for unions to access workplaces, win recognition, and establish collective bargaining, including sector-wide bargaining.
• Unions’ right to decide their own policies and activities, determine their own structures and rules, and spend their funds as they choose, free from state and employer interference, in line with ILO Conventions and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Supported by:

Lambeth Local Government Unison
Unite Community and Not for Profit Youth Workers NW
Unite Community SE London
Unite Loretto Care Glasgow
GMB London Central General
Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB)
Hackney Picturehouse BECTU (Prospect) branch
Croydon NUT/NEU
PCS DWP East London
RMT Bakerloo Line
RMT London Transport Regional Council
CWU Great London Combined
Southwark NUT/NEU
Lewisham NUT/NEU
RMT East Ham
Unite Central London Voluntary