NEW UNION LAWS

During the twenty years of Tory rule many forms of industrial action were made illegal. Unions and workers who tried to take action were taken to court and fined. Unions lost most of the limited legal rights they had obtained and hundreds of thousands of workers lost any right to take their employer to an industrial tribunal because of unfair dismissal.

Since Labour was elected in May 1997 trade unions, who provide the bulk of the party's funds (and as the recent election for the Labour leader in the Welsh Assembly shows provide the means by which the leadership can ensure its views are pushed forward) have eagerly awaited the government's proposals for employment law reform which have now been published.

Union leaders, keen not to rock the boat, are trying to hide their bitter disappointment. John Monks TUC general secretary has said that the new law "does not go as far as unions would like", TGWU leader Bill Morris says it "represents a missed opportunity" while public services union UNISON'S head, Rodney Bickerstaffe, expressed "disappointment that the government leaned more towards the employers' point of view" in its new law. This is putting it mildly to say the least. Tony Blair has boasted that once the Fairness at Work Bill becomes law British workers will still have the lowest level of legal protection of any other European Community state.

Labour's new law means, for example, that thousands of workers will still be denied the right to take a claim for unfair dismissal, not because they have not been treated unfairly by their employer but just because they have been in work for less than twelve months as employment protection will only start once you have been in a job for over a year. As John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB trade union, says "all employees should be entitled to employment rights from the first minute of the first day". Fat chance with this government!

Even if you are able to take your employer to an Industrial Tribunal for unfair dismissal the most in compensation you will receive for losing your job is £50,000 and you have no right to get your job back if your boss is found to have unfairly dismissed you.

The law will allow unions to try to obtain recognition from employers, but only if they already have 10% of a work force in membership (not easy with hostile employers) and gain 40% of the votes of all those eligible to vote (not just a majority of those who actually vote). No government (including Blair's) would ever be elected on this basis.

Workplaces with less than twenty employees, which often have the worse industrial relations, 'will be exempted from the law, meaning unions will have no right to represent their employees. The Bill also allows employers to start procedures to de- recognise unions (for example if the size of a workplace falls below 21 people)! So rather than increasing union membership it could actually result in it falling.

Workers wanting to take industrial action will still face massive legal hurdles. Blair has said that "the days of strikes without ballots, mass picketing, closed shops and secondary picketing are over". Behind the brave faces of the union bosses is the reality that this is a government that listens to business rather than trade unions. Business chiefs like Lord Sainsbury hold government posts or head task forces.

Labour's love affair with business and enterprise, though, is not shared by the British public. Last week The Financial Times reported the results of a MORI poll on attitudes to business under the headline 'Mori Poll Indicates Growing Unpopularity of Profit Motive'. Approval of big business in Britain is at its lowest since the poll first started thirty years ago. Asked whether they thought that the profits of large British companies help make things better for everybody who buys their goods and services, a mere 25% agreed! In 1980, 56% agreed. The Financial Times reports that "there appears to have been no improvement [in business popularity] in the 21 months since Tony Blair led the Labour Party back to office".

The British public understand that business is not concerned with social or environmental welfare but just with profit. Labour's trade union 'reforms' will help companies' bottom lines by continuing to deny workers basic rights and protection.

Of course none of this comes as a surprise to anarchists. That the state supports the interest of business rather than workers and their representatives is to be expected. It does not matter that unions put millions into Labour's election campaign or that Labour promised real reform, not a re-jigging of Thatcher's reforms which is what the unions have ended up with. Anarchists know that you cannot rely on laws, the state, political parties or reformist unions to improve things. Real change lies elsewhere.

Richard Griffin

March 6th 1999