Labour must get the anti-union laws off workers’ backs!

By Mark Osborn, NEU rep at City of London Academy (Southwark). Published on 23rd October 2018. The National Education Union at CoLA took three days of strike action in March. We took one day of action on the first week, two days the next week and the union told our Head we would be out

John McDonnell’s TUC speech and the right to strike

Published on 11th September 2018 John McDonnell’s speech to the TUC on workers’ rights comes in the context of new figures showing falling unemployment and rising real earnings. But higher employment does not automatically mean better conditions and rights for workers; and the marginal increase in real wages comes after a decade of the most severe fall

Trade union rights – back John McDonnell’s call

By Sam Greenwood, Wakefield Local Government UNISON activist Speaking at a meeting on the first hundred days of a Labour government at Unison conference this week, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said that a Corbyn government will repeal all the Tories’ anti-union laws and enact positive legislation for workers’ rights. He also said Labour would back all strikes,

Young Labour national policy on repealing the anti-union laws/workers’ rights

The following two motions were passed at Young Labour policy conference in October 2017, building on the policy passed by Labour Party conference in September.

The anti-union laws: acid test for a Corbyn government

“[Since 1980, trade unions have been] regulated, harried, battered, fined and sequestrated, step by step by step, in Act after Act in pursuit of aim of decollectivising the workplace.” – Labour peer Bill Wedderburn on the last of nine Tory anti-union Acts, 1993

If Jeremy Corbyn wants a mass movement, he must radically revive the unions

By Michael Chessum, orginally published in The New Statesman, 5th January 2018 The world, especially the political world, is a volatile place these days, and one ought to be wary of omens. But when McDonalds announced this week that it would award its employees their biggest pay rise in a decade, you could be forgiven for having

Labour votes to scrap all anti-union laws – build a campaign!

By Ruth Cashman, Lambeth Unison joint-Branch Secretary At the end of September, Labour Party conference voted unanimously for a motion to scrap the anti-trade union laws – not just the 2016 Trade Union Act, but also “anti-union laws introduced in the 1980s and 90s” by the Thatcher and Major Tory governments. “For unions to be

“Young workers turned up for us – we must turn up for them”

The following speech was delivered by Maria Bagnall, delegate from Charnwood CLP in Leicestershire, at Labour Party conference. The motion she was supporting established clear Labour policy for supporting workers’ struggles, for repeal of all anti-trade union laws and for positive legal rights for workers and their unions.

Tamworth CLP submits conference resolution on McDonald’s strike and union rights

On the same day that McDonald’s workers in Crayford and Cambridge made history by going on strike, demonstrating the power of workers getting together and organising, it was an honor to propose to my CLP, in Tamworth, that it send a contemporary resolution to conference supporting the strike (see below). It also talks about other

Solidarity strikes and Labour democracy

Labour Party conference 2015 voted unanimously for a motion that committed the next Labour government to “legislate for strong rights to unionise, win recognition and collective bargaining, strike, picket and take solidarity action”, on the basis of a motion promoted by the Right to Strike campaign formed to fight the Trade Union Bill (now Act) and all anti-union