labour movement opposition overthrew the Heath government's Industrial Relations Act.
ing. are designed to draw the noose around the neck of The legal core of the Tebbit Acts is to make the legally responsibly for the breakring of contracts. The catch is that of course virtually any industrial action in• technically breaking with employers, suppliers .CUSLOWLICID Almost any union action at can become subject to legal attack under the new Acts.
Before the 1980 and 1982 laws the definition of But the Tory legal assault is still only just beginnHILARY DRIVER looks at how the new laws La 'trade dispute' has immunity from prosecution under the law was any achon simpiy conti Editions of employment; physical conditions work; hiring and firing; work duties; facilities for union officials etc.
Under the new law an industrial action by union only has immunity if it is 'wholly or mainly' related such dispute. As the courts alone decide what constitutes the meaning of 'wholly or mainly' the effects legally devastating.
Furthermore a trade dispute is now defined so that it reters only to an ac tion between workers and their own employer.
Under the new Acts all trade union solidarity action therefore becomes il legal. Strikes against informal policy government pay norms in the public sector could be declared illegal. Fleet Street bosses use the rade dispute' to sue the NGA for their losses "illegal' secondary strike union members to bring legal actions against their own unions.
The law has never been friend of organised workers. Judges enormous powers to interDIck laws su as to benefit employers. The history of the trade union movement is one of repeated legal atINDEPENDENT O • SHE JESTED SITCOM "HO, HO"
WE CRIED! action.
The legality of nearly any strike is at the discretion of non-elected and anti-union judges.
Unions stepping over the line of this Tory legalitv are then made to Day dearly for their sins. They are liable to be unlawful acts which not furtherance of a trade dispute'.
Unions: can also be sued for secondary picketing, 'indiscriminate secondary action and industrial action "to compel union membership'.
Finally unions can be sued in many circumstances for the actions of their officials — a direct Miners picket to support a union at Grunwick. This is illegal under the new laws. tacks on its right to organise effectively.
This Bill represents a serious new development in the area of legal intervention in union affairs. For the first time it lays down which allows judges, rather than union members, to decide on unions should organise themselves.
THAT WAS AN EXCERP PARLIAMENT"tional officials to 'police' shop stewards.
Trade unions with over 100,000 members ale liable to be sued for up to £250,000 for different claim for damages. For contempt of court the tines can be even greater "amounts. Considerable Legal and labour costs can also be awarded against a In addition to attacks existing organisation the new laws make it far harder achieve union membership the first place of nonorganised workplaces very often requires secondary It allows judges decide what is and what is not. It permits Then in erecto deteranc not only how the union should be organised but also where should organise, what strikes it should support, which campaigns it can run.
of state interference in the internal orcallsallull BY GORMAG 216 SO WHY NOT JOIN US ALL DAY AND EVERY DAY FOR A MILLION BITTER. LAUGHS EACH SECOND IN LA NEW TORY BLACK J COMEDY -'ORGANISED (ANARCHY"
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