The “Blond Bombshell” is loving his moment in the media spotlight. Cast as the dashing hero fighting the evil Crow, armed with just a load of sponsored bicycles and some unscientific opinion polls in the London Evening Standard, Boris Johnson is leading the charge for draconian new strike laws.
As if it’s not hard enough already to organise a legal strike ballot, Boris wants to ensure a simple majority is no longer enough but that you must get at least 50 per cent of those eligible to vote supporting the strike call. All because some people had to get on a bus or a boat or, heaven forbid, walk somewhere while tube workers were defending their jobs and protecting health and safety. So sorry to have incovenienced you.
It probably escaped his notice, but under Boris’ plans the vast majority of MEPs, councillors and London Assembly members would not have won their seats.
We can expect much more of this kind of rhetoric from politicians and sections of the media over the coming weeks. It is part of the softening up process for future attacks on the fundamental right to strike and other trade union activity.
So we’ve had the Daily Telegraph “exposé” of the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on providing time off for union representatives whether in local government, education, the civil service, the BBC or other parts of the public sector. Now the CBI is getting in on the act. Its new report, Keeping the Wheels Turning, is a shopping list of new anti-union laws.
The CBI is calling for the right to use agency workers to replace striking workers, the notice period for industrial action to increase from seven to 14 days after the ballot takes place to give the public and businesses more time to prepare for strikes, restricting the issues in any dispute, a watering down of the union recognition legislation, the right of employers to send a statement with the ballot papers, a larger warning that pay and benefits may be lost if you strike and for damages against unions who make an error in law to be increased. Oh, and they want action taken against Facebook and other social networking sites to prevent workers organising wildcat action themselves. Talk about a return to Victorian values. “Excuse me sir, is it OK to breathe now?”
If adopted by the Government, it would amount to the most direct attack on trade unionism since the era of Margaret Thatcher era and, in fact, goes further than she ever dared. The CBI says these measures will help to support “responsible trade unions”. Just like Red Ed. Fresh from publicly denouncing my union, the National Union of Journalists, BECTU and Unite at the BBC, Ed Miliband has a chance to redeem himself by being clear that Labour will fight this outrageous extension of anti-union laws and restrictions on freedom of association.
The new Labour leader also has the chance to show in practice he supports unions (and let’s stop this stupid media-inspired distinction between responsible and irresponsible trade unions) by supporting John McDonnell’s Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill which is a modest attempt to undo some of the damage done by the recent rush to the courts to get injunctions to stop strikes. The NUJ will join the lobby for the bill on October 13 – and I’ll be looking out for Ed.
Organising lawful industrial action in this country is already a nightmare. I know – my union bears the scars (and the bills) for not complying with each dot and comma of the legislation. Making the laws more oppressive will not stop strikes. The best way to avoid strikes is to stop cutting jobs, services, pay and pensions.
So how does Bob Crow respond to this latest attack? “The latest publicity stunt from Boris Johnson and the Tory Party financiers from the CBI is to advocate bending and distorting democracy to try to ban strikes by the back door and strip workers of their basic human rights in a move reminiscent of a right-wing, Latin-American military dictatorship.”
We may not be there yet (and that’s not because the tubes aren’t running), but it’s certainly the direction of travel.
Jeremy Dear is general secretary of the National Union of Journalists
