collective fashion to further the wages and conditions of men and women at work. But the party leadership is proposing that the next Labour government enforces secret ballots and gives individuals who don't like what the majority in a trade union are doing the right to attack the very unions that they belong to. It is a policy which has the seeds of discontent sown within it.
At the NEC which passed this policy, the left attempted to stop the document from being presented to party conference. That policy was carried by 17:8, with Tom Sawyer of NUPE abstaining. Only Tony Benn, Eric Clarke, Frances Curran, Eric Heffer, Joan Maynard, Jo Richardson, Dennis Skinner and Audrey Wise were prepared to vote against it.
Several attempts were made to take out those passages that established a legal framework for industrial relations, which dealt with setting up an industrial relations court and imposed secret ballots. But the majority of the NEC wing and the 'cuddly' left - went along with or supported the inclusion of paragraphs 59, 60 and 61.
66 The very essence of trade union strength is to be able to take on the bosses as quickly and effectively as possible. The bosses don't have to hold ballots when they lock people. out.99 The party leadership is busy arguing that ballots should be made a legal requirement for trade unionists, but they have no plans for ballots Inine Stock Exchange, in Lloyds, or in the City of London generally. Instead, financial instititütions have the right to operate selfregulatory procedures, to the extent of not even allowing the law to interfere.
Recently parliament : was told that this 'self-regulation' has allowed Peter Cameron-Wells and Peter Dixon to get away with £39 million. Now they are living a life of luxury in America - and not one single member of the fraud squad has paid them a visit Some Labour Party leaders are responding to criticism of the People at Work policy by engaging in semantics. Don't be fooled! They are trying to argue that secret ballots will only be imposed in respect of certain strikes.
66 The Labour leadership's strategy for winning the next election is to take Tory claims at their face value - and adapt to them. 99 The fact is that most strikes are unofficial in the very beginning. They have a tendency to be given otficial status only after a couple of weeks of action. It is in cases like these, — - strikes about important issues affecting wages, on privatisation, and so on — when secret ballots will have to take place. In the wake of those ballots certain minorities will have the right to dictate to the majority.
All this means chaos in collective bargaining.
The very essence of trade union strength is to be able to take on the bosses as quickly and effectively as possible. The bosses don't have to hold ballots when they lock people out; they don't have to hold ballots when they decide to attack workers for no good reason; management doesn't have to ballot the workforce before getting rid of a shop steward Management is a law unto itsell, but no legislation is being drawn up. to restrict the power of the bosses.
Delegates at TUC congress have to ask themselves a simple question: will this policy assist the average trade unionist to further his or her wages and conditions, or will it put a break on collective bargaining and industrial action? The answer is that it will put a break on realising better wages and conditions for workers. And it would be a nonsense to have a Trade Union Congress passing a resolution which etfectively places serious obstacles in the path of improving the lot of workers.
Socialist Action 29 Aug 1986