Friday 6 August 2010

Nothing To Lose But Our Chains

Now that Ed Miliband has put the Thatcher anti-union laws on the table, as his brother has declined to do, he should renew John Smith's promise to legislate for employment rights to begin on day one of employment and to apply regardless of the number of hours worked. Astonishingly, that never happened in 13 years of Labour Government.

He should also promise to build on the statutory right of every worker to join a trade union and to have that trade union recognised for collective bargaining purposes, by giving every trade unionist so recognised the statutory right to take industrial action in pursuit of a legitimate grievance, including strike action, and including solidarity action of a clearly secondary character (such as a work to rule in support of a strike) within a single industry or corporation.

And, intimately connected with the above, he should promise to abolish all remaining vestiges of Compulsory Competitive Tendering, of the capping of councils, and of the power of central government to rule local services ultra vires, as well as to defend council housing wherever tenants or local communities wish to retain it.

Electoral reform offers the prospect of a permanent body of MPs who could hold him and his successors to those commitments.

2 comments:

  1. I seem to recall Thatcher's anti-Union laws being very popular following the messing around in the 1970s. I can't see their removal being very popular outside of Labour's heartlands, especially if it were to result in an increase in striking. People will no longer tolerate the inconvenience of striking.

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  2. See how far back you have to go to make your point. That is what Thatcher's remaining devotees (even very right-wing columnists are chomping at the bit for her to die, so that they can write what they really think of her) are: throwbacks to before several sitting MPs, and quite a few in the next Parliament, were born. People now have the vote who were not born when Thatcher left office. Think on that.

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