Tories launch biggest crackdown on trade unions for 30 years

[Starry Messenger]

Source: The Guardian

The biggest crackdown on trade union rights for 30 years will be unveiled on Wednesday, including new plans to criminalise picketing, permit employers to hire strike-breaking agency staff and choke off the flow of union funds to the Labour party.

<snip>

In further changes, Javid will:

• Require all unions, not just those affiliated to Labour, to ask each existing union member whether they wish to pay the political levy and then repeat the question every five years. The £25m annual political fund income from 4.5 million political levy payers funds a wide range of political campaigning including being a chief source of funding for Labour.

• Propose that unlawful or intimidatory picketing should become a criminal as opposed to civil offence and new protections should be available for those workers unwilling to strike. A named official will be required to be available at all times to the police to oversee the picket including the numbers on the line, currently set at six, in an existing code of conduct.

<snip>

The leader of the train drivers’ union Aslef, Mick Whelan, has already likened the attack on union rights as resonant of fascist Germany.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/trade-unions-conservative-offensive-decades-strikes-labour

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Friends don't let friend vote for the right-wing. UK DUers? How likely are these measures to come to pass?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Let me guess, they ran claiming they were for the working class.

[Starry Messenger]

2. No idea.

Hopefully someone who knows will chime in. I tried to follow the elections in the spring, but I find the multiparty system kind of hard to follow at times.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. No, they are the Tory Party, they run calling for more cuts to social programs and a hard line

on immigration, ranting against trade unionists and all that.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

6. Loved Steve Bell's take on the election...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/dec/01/steve-bell-road-building-general-election

[RoccoR5955]

3. This is what happens

when they let the right wing bastards in.
They criminalize unions, and protests.
They shall eventually pay for this, but who knows how long it will take.

[asiliveandbreathe]

4. Imagine..our own Jim Messina worked for the UK Cameron conservative party

and now with Hillary - imagine - along with the Prez...

American political adviser Jim Messina is getting credit for leading conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron to an overwhelming, if surprising victory, but he said Friday that once he comes back to the United States, he's Hillary Clinton "all the time."

Just sayin' - I guess because he knows how to win elections - maybe he didn't know Camerons agenda....

[FreakinDJ]

15. I'm sure he did know the agenda as much as

He knew where he 7 figure salery was coming from

And now he works for Hilary .......

Very troubling indeed

[Doctor_J]

7. one of Hillary's campaign gurus masterminded the Tory sweep

Union members can expect more of the same under president Clinton. That aft endorsement is looking more repugnant by the day

[Person 2713]

8. Are conservatives there moving to UKIP away from Tories? Do the Tories have to show how

hard core conservative they are to stop UKIP from taking votes?
Just wondering
but they talk about bankrupting Labour so maybe that is their sole goal

[midnight]

9. kick.

[Starry Messenger]

10. Thank you.

I find stories like this very stressful.

[freshwest]

12. Yeah, for a long time we thought the UK had it all figured out - then this! n/t

[Starry Messenger]

13. Yes! Rust never sleeps.

Never take your gains for granted.

[freshwest]

14. In my YSA classes way back in the day, we were taught the oligarches could wait us out...

The aging of those with the knowledge is the long-term means of control. Add media to divide and divert, teach each generation to disrespect the labors of the older, and you have the recipe for constant struggle with the deck stacked against one. Awareness must be expanded to maintain knowledge.

Our society is no longer being organized horizontally for us to unite. Losing the Commons is the greatest threat t freedom. It was our place to organize democratically.

Social orders (except perhaps the indigenous) are now set up vertically, straight from each individual to the owners. No place to protect or unite, we are cut down to the 'nuclear family' or less.

I think that we are going to a combination of Brave New World and 1984 and at times IDK if we can get past ego to organize. It took over 1K years of special social changes in circumstances that no longer exist to create what he have been living in.

We've been protected by the shade of the trees (for want of a better word) that our ancestors planted and we had the luxury of having. It's a cycle that the rich can wait out, but we can't.

[Starry Messenger]

16. That's probably true.

Well put.

[msongs]

11. sounds like germany back in about 1934 nt

[candelista]

17. Here are some other features of the proposal:

In further changes, Javid will:

• Compel unions to renew any strike mandate with a fresh ballot within four months of the first ballot and give employers the right to hire strike-breaking agency staff as well as require a union to give the employer at least a fortnight’s notice before the industrial action starts.

• Empower the government to set a limit on the proportion of working time any public sector worker can spend on trade union duties.

• Give the government certification officer powers to fine trade unions as much as £20,000 for breaches of reporting rules including an annual audit on its protests and pickets. The certification officer will also have power to initiate investigations and will in future be funded by a joint levy of unions and employers

• Require a clear description of the trade dispute and the planned industrial action on the ballot paper, so that all union members are clear what they are voting for.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/trade-unions-conservative-offensive-decades-strikes-labour

If this gets implemented, the US will be next.

[Starry Messenger]

18. I think that too.