Anti-Trade Union Bill: Tory attacks on right to strike ‘like under Franco’s Spain’

The controversial bill, which seeks to limit trade unions’ ability to organize legal strikes, is being championed by Conservative business secretary Sajid Javid and will have its second reading Monday afternoon.

The bill will include legislation that requires a minimum of 50 percent of union members to vote yes in strike ballots before action can take place.

It would also introduce fines of up to £20,000 for unions whose members do not wear identifying armbands when picketing and would allow employers to use strike-breaking temporary workers.

Buoyed by the election of socialist Jeremy Corbyn as Labour party leader on Saturday, however, unions have pledge to fight the bill.

At the week-long Trades Union Congress (TUC) annual conference, which began Sunday, general secretary Frances O’Grady is expected to argue that while “nobody would deny that strikes can be inconvenient” the right to take action to defend wages and conditions is “fundamental.”

“The public are with us,” she will argue. “Because that’s exactly what this government is doing. Attacking the very principle of the right to strike. This bill threatens the basic right to strike.”

O’Grady added: “It will allow employers to bus in agency temps to break strikes and will bring in big new restrictions on picketing and protests during a strike, including unions having to tell the police and employers what they will post on Facebook or Twitter two weeks in advance.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the bill also faces opposition from within the Conservative party’s ranks.

On Sunday, Tory MP David Davis compared parts of the bill to measures once taken by the Spanish fascist regime of General Franco, which attacked workers’ rights over its four decades in power from the 1930s to the 1970s.

While Davis agreed with much of the bill, he opposed measures such as forcing picketing workers to report to the police.

“I agree with most of the trade union bill. I think it’s very sensible … but there are bits of it which look OTT, like requiring pickets to give their names to the police force,” Davis told the Guardian.

“What is this? This isn’t Franco’s Britain, this is Queen Elizabeth II’s Britain,” Davis said.

Javid’s stated aim in pursuing the bill is to stop workers making “endless threats” of strikes at the expense of “hardworking people.”

John Bercow, speaker of the House of Commons, has addressed the TUC conference in Brighton, becoming the first speaker to do so.

Bercow told delegates: “I am proud to be here among your number, proud to be your guest and I say that because I respect and admire the invaluable and precious work you do in promoting fairness in the workplace and the wider work you do in pursuit of greater equality across society.”

Opponents of the Trade Union Bill have urged activists to converge on parliament at 6pm BST on Monday to protest. Among speakers attending the rally will be newly appointed Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.