‘A complete bashing of TU rights’

Thousands gathered at a TUC Support the Right to Strike lobby and rally in London today (November 2), where trade unionists from across the country came to fight the trade union Bill.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, among the guest speakers at the rally, urged the packed crowd to stand confident in their fight because justice was on their side.

“Remember that 75 per cent of the electorate did not vote for this government – so for them to even suggest that they have a mandate to do what they are doing is simply wrong,” he said.

McCluskey highlighted that opposition to the Bill – which will impose strike thresholds, allow agency workers and criminalise illegal pickets, among other measures – has come from all sides, including Conservative MPs, civil liberties organisations and one of the government’s own regulatory bodies.

“I can tell you that, as someone who deals with all the major manufacturing companies in the nation, not a single CEO of any of those national companies are in favour of this Bill,” he added.

He railed against prime minister David Cameron’s assertion that strike thresholds included in the Bill were in place only to make ballots more democratic.

Real purpose

“We got an easy answer for him – give us secure workplace balloting and we’ll never have to worry about turnouts every again,” he said. “If he doesn’t take up that offer, then he will expose the real purpose behind this bill, which is to emasculate our movement, which is the biggest voluntary organisation within our nations. With our families, we represent over 10m people.

“We are not the enemy within,” McCluskey argued. “Trade unionists are the very people who create the wealth in our society. Trade unionists teach our children, heal our sick, look after our vulnerable and care for our elderly, clean our streets, collect our refuse, and create the cohesiveness of the communities in which we live.

Dozens of Labour MPs came out to show their support for trade unions and assert their continued commitment to opposing the Bill.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour MP for Salford and Eccles, spoke to UNITElive about the Bill.

“It’s going to absolutely destroy the rights of trade unions – but not only that, it’s going destroy the funding of the Labour party to make it less possible to be elected again,” she said. “We’ve got to realise that people have fought for over a hundred years to get the rights that we have today and those rights are basic rights. We need stronger rights and we don’t want them to be stripped away.”

Long-Bailey highlighted the importance of continued public pressure.

“It’s so important to have events like today – to have mass lobbies to encourage MPs who aren’t otherwise supporters of trade unions so that they understand that this is a fundamental breach of workers, political and human rights,” she said.

She explained the critical role trade unions play in the wider economy – whether you’re in a trade union or not, we all benefit from them.

“Trade unions are so important because they actually make our economy more productive,” she said. “If you look at statistics from around the world, the countries that have stronger trade unions, have more better and more productive economies.”

Jo Stevens, MP for Cardiff Central, highlighted just how dangerous the Bill would be for working people.

Illegal Bill

“This Bill will affect more than 6m people across the country,” she said. “It’s an illegal bill, it’s illiterate and it’s illogical. It breaches international law, it breaches treaty obligations, and it’s really dangerous from a civil liberties and human rights perspective. It’s going to create a two-tier civil liberties system in the UK – one for trade unionists and one for everybody else.”

But Stevens said that she and other Labour MPs will continue to fight the bill, no matter what it takes.

“We’ve been opposing the Bill throughout,” she said. “I was on the Bill committee that heard evidence from trade union general secretaries, from experts, from civil liberties organisations – nobody is in favour of this Bill and we’ve got to continue to oppose it. We’ve got to get the public behind us because this is a really dangerous and draconian bill.”

Unite member James Godfrey urged working people to take heart, because he and other trade unionists have fought a similar battle in Australia – and won.

“I’ve worked in Australia for a trade union at a time when the Conservative government there legislated against workers through the WorkChoices laws, and we actively campaigned there against the government and against the legislation,” he said.

“Collectively, people got together up and down the country and the legislation was eventually repealed. This is another opportunity the Conservative government here has given us to expose them for who they really are.”

John Gunn, Unite chair of a branch which encompasses the North West ambulance service, told UNITElive why he came for the rally and lobby today.

Democratic right

“I’m here to defend our democratic right to ballot without any preconditions of extra numbers to reach those thresholds, which works okay if you’re an MP or if you’re the police commissioner, who don’t have to reach thresholds to be elected,” he said.

“But they want to impose these thresholds only on unions – it’s a complete bashing of union rights.”

Unite regional officer Banso Loi said she attended so that she could “take the message back to reps and members”, in order to help them fight the Bill.

“This Bill is incredibly dangerous because it completely takes our rights away,” she explained.

“We’ve had women and men die fighting to have the rights we have today. Strikes are always a last resort in order to get a message across to employers. Apart from this right, we have nothing else to protect us as workers and we can’t just let it slip out of our hands.”

Stay tuned on UNITElive as the trade union Bill goes before MPs for its report stage and third reading next Tuesday (November 10).

And don’t forget there’s still time to email your MP and tell them why you’re against the Bill. It takes only a few minutes, and strengthens our collective voice in Parliament. Find out more here.