Boris Johnson and restrictive trade union laws

By Cat Smith / @CateySmith

On the day of the second 24 hour walk-out of TSSA and RMT members on London Underground, Boris Johnson has called for stricter trade union laws making it harder for trade unions to take industrial action. He is calling for a ballot to only be valid with a 50% turnout, a rule which doesn’t apply for elections to parliament, councils or any other political body I am aware of.

The Tory Mayor seems to think that stricter legislation is the solution to sorting out the job losses and safety issues on the tube, rather than sitting down and talking to union leaders. In fact, Boris Johnson isn’t even in the capital today – he’s busy crowd-pleasing at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. So sorry Londoners, your Mayor has left you to deal with this one alone, again. During the last walk out last month Boris Johnson was conspicuous by his absence from the media.

It may surprise some LabourList readers to learn that the UK has the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe. Increasingly unions are being prevented from implementing the democratic decisions of their members by employers applying and winning court injunctions based on minor technical errors. Examples within the last year include Johnston Press v NUJ when the union had to abandon a strike of journalists because the employer claimed to “employ no journalists”, despite the fact that the Johnston Press website states that the company employs 1,900 journalists. It is issues like these that John McDonnell’s Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill aims to address, and I hope our Labour MPs will support this much-needed bill through parliament.

UK laws have been continually criticised by international supervisory bodies. In 2008 the European Court of Human Rights declared that restrictions on the right to strike could violate Article 11 of the Human Rights Convention. Yet Boris Johnson wants more restrictive legislation? If Johnson tries to suppress our right to withdraw our labour we will rise up, and dealing with wildcat strikes has always been more difficult than dealing with legal ones.

My piece of advice for Boris Johnson? Legislation will make matters worse. Try having a dialogue with the people who work day-in and day-out on the tube and you might learn a thing or two. One thing is for sure – all those delegates and VIPs in Birmingham will not help you solve this one.