Unions are the people’s champion, not the enemy within – MPs must back them today

The minimum service levels bill is being debated in the House of Commons today and the TUC has called an emergency protest outside Parliament this evening at 6pm.

All are welcome to join us as we stand together in solidarity to defend our right to strike.

The bill is opposed by all unions, the TUC and the Labour Party. This Bill is yet another Tory attempt to suppress the power of collective action. It takes away our fundamental worker’s freedom. No worker should be sacked for standing up for their interests and taking industrial action.

This latest restriction of worker’s freedom comes on top of 43 years of anti-union laws from the Conservative Party which means we have the most restrictive labour legislation in the democratic world. The Tories have always painted us as the ‘enemy within’ and legislated accordingly.

The Tories are again playing divisive politics with our basic rights and freedoms. This bill is an undemocratic and cynical ploy to take away our rights following the many industrial disputes of the past few months. Instead of getting round the negotiating table to try and solve these disputes they are trying to delegitimise the right to strike itself. They will not succeed.

The waves of strike action over the last year have happened with all the restrictions on trade union freedoms, including unjustified thresholds for action and outdated processes including the ban on electronic and workplace balloting, in place.

As long as working people face an increasingly dire wages crisis with pay failing to keep up with the rising cost of living and inflation strikes will continue. It is the Tories disastrous and irresponsible economic policies that are the cause of these disputes.

The Tories cannot legislate away what is clear for all to see – their economic failures. The government’s bill is a direct attack on our right  to  strike  but we will continue to do our job, which is to defend our members interests.

Instead of dealing with the issues driving the disputes this government is using its majority in the House of Commons to railroad this bill through.

They are forcing this anti-union, anti-workers bill through as quickly as they can despite the defeats in the Lords by peers concerned about the negative effects of the legislation on trade unions freedoms and on individual workers rights.

The bill contains the power to extend the scope of the current provisions to so far unnamed sectors by ministerial diktat without any reference back to Parliament. The freedoms that every single worker currently enjoys are under threat from this bill.

In a free society unions have the right to represent their members interests and take action to assert these. It is time to reset our labour rights. The era of repression of workers rights is coming to an end. We must free our unions in order to change the world of work and create a fairer and more equal society where being at work will always pay.

It is time to implement the New Deal for Workers proposed by the Labour affiliated unions. The restrictions on minimum service levels are just one of the many anti-worker and anti-trade union laws that need repealing.

The incoming Labour government must not only reverse the minimum service level legislation but make fair pay and justice in the workplace a defining characteristic of its programme.