Anti-union laws: \"In Place of Strife\" – Mark II
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
It's back to 1969 and Harold Wilson's notorious "In Place of Strife" anti-trade union Bill.
Labour Party Conference has taken us there by voting not to repeal all the Tory anti-trade union laws and by accepting the Policy Review document People at Work.
Conference voted to retain major sections of the Tory laws, going far beyond the provisions of "In Place of Strife" — which involved powers to order would-be strikers back to work for a 28 day "cooling off period".
Michael Meacher, who presented the Policy Review to Conference, proposed some modest modifications to the present Tory legal battery ranged against the unions.
These modifications included restoration of trade union rights at GCHQ, strengthening of Industrial Tribunals, and curbs on the sacking of workers for taking "legitimate" strike action, and are all valuable.
But they would not alter the fundamental position of the unions in relation to the law.
There will be no restoration of trade union immunities, no change in the laws on balloting, no change in the laws on picketing, and the laws on secondary action will remain in place, though modified.
According to Meacher, the right to secondary action would be restored only where workers have a "genuine interest" in supporting others.
In the Conference debate Arthur Scargill referred to "In Place of Strife" and asked what Labour laws on secondary action would really mean, stressing the importance to weaker sections of the movement of solidarity action.
Incumbent
"It is incumbent on all workers to take a stand in their support," Scargill said.
What constitutes a "genuine interest" and who would decide when it existed has not yet been clarified. But responding to Scargill on Newsnight after the Conference debate, Meacher stated, "miners' do not have a genuine interest in a nurses' dispute."
By the time the Tories have ripped into the ambiguities of the Policy Review we will find that there will be no right to take "secondary" or solidarity action at all under a Kinnock Labour government.
This may be precisely what right wing union leaders have in mind. Bill Jordan attacked Scargill from the Conference rostrum:
"The armies of mass picketers have been demobilised and the next Labour government must not call them up again… Today's Party is a party of law-makers, not law-breakers."
We were told repeatedly by Meacher that Labour would not put the unions above the law! In fact, trade unions have never been above the law (unlike the employers).
From 1906 until the 1980s, unions did have protection against legal action for collectively withdrawing labour. The Labour Party was formed precisely to fight for that right.
Balloting, unless it is postal, is not wrong in principle. But it should be up to the unions to decide their own consultation processes, not have them imposed by the courts.
The legal imposition of balloting allows the courts to intervene at every stage of a strike ballot or an election; and in turn allows the Tories or managers to manipulate the courts and legal procedures.
Proposals
A major part of Meacher's proposals, which has received little attention, is the creation of a specialist court for trade union matters — a new version of Edward Heath's hated National Industrial Relations Court, abolished by Labour in 1975.
Meacher argued this would avoid the problem of inconsistencies emerging from courts and judges with no experience of industrial relations.
In this context, it doesn't mean much to talk about abolishing sequestration. If unions are to be subject to laws restricting industrial action, they are going to be punished if they break them — whether by sequestration, massive fines, or imprisonment.
If fines are imposed and the "offences" are repeated or the fines not paid, those responsible will be held in contempt of court and ultimately gaoled, as they were during the time of the Industrial Relations Act.
The right-wing were particularly jubilant over the result of this Conference vote. Eric Hammond said he "wholeheartedly supported the policy document" and it was "the best week of his life."