UCU: Anti-trade union laws

Motion

Motion text: Congress notes:
The failure of Labour to rescind the legislation against Luton bus strikers, Milford Haven strikers and especially BA's successful challenge to Unite's strike ballot.
That various groups of workers (eg. oil refinery workers and prison officers last year) successfully took action which might be considered unlawful but faced no legal challenge. In every case employers judged it not in their best interests to risk escalating action.
The increasing use by employers of anti-trade union legislation to challenge ballot results (e. g. by BA and Network Rail) thereby rendering effective legal industrial action much more difficult to achieve.
It is clear that the legislation is largely self-policing in its effect on the trade union leadership and the TUC.
Congress believes that UCU should work with the TUC and other unions to campaign effectively for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws and for a new Trade Union Freedom Bill which will provide protection for workers and their unions when deciding to take industrial action.
Further Congress reiterates UCU's principled opposition to legal interference by employers and the state in trade unions' democratic decision-making about industrial action and believes anti-working class laws can be undermined through democratically-determined mass strike action and inter-union solidarity in refusing to cross picket lines.