Tories launch crackdown on trade union strikes

A radical overhaul of Britain's strike laws – described by The Guardian as "the biggest crackdown on trade union rights for 30 years" – will be unveiled by the government today.

In the face of mounting union anger, Tory employment minister Nick Boles defended the proposals this morning, telling the Today programme that the right to strike was something the government stood by, but that the public and business owners had rights too.

He said the majority of strikes held during the past two years – including last week's Tube strike – would actually have passed "the new threshold" outlined in the Trades Union Bill.

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But union leaders say the proposals are clearly designed to limit their members' ability to hold effective strikes. TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "The government is determined to strip workers of power at the negotiating table and give bosses the upper hand during disputes. It reads like something straight out of a George Orwell novel."

Aslef leader Mick Whelan said the government proposals "smack of Germany in the 1930s" when trade union leaders and activists were "rounded up, imprisoned and executed." His comments were denounced as outrageous by Tory MPs, one of whom, Peter Bone, called on Whelan to resign immediately.

At least one union leader has threatened illegal 'wildcat' strikes in protest at the government's proposals.

Andy Burnham, frontrunner for the Labour leadership, described the new Bill as a "campaign of demonisation" against the unions, but made it clear he was against illegal strikes.

So, what are the changes being proposed?

Strike votes must be up-to-date:

The use of historic votes to justify a strike will be banned. Any mandate to strike must be less than four-months-old. The new rule would have prevented the NUT holding one-day teachers' strikes last year on the basis of a ballot conducted in 2012.

50 per cent turnout:

For a strike to be valid, at least 50 per cent of those eligible to vote must have turned out for the vote. As the BBC reports, under the current law a strike can go ahead if it is backed by a simple majority of the union members voting, regardless of turnout.

'Double threshold':

For a strike to be valid in key public sectors – education, health, transport, the Fire Brigade, the Border Force and nuclear plants - at least 40 per cent of those eligible to vote must support the strike. This 'double threshold' would mean, for example, that if 100 schoolteachers were asked to strike, the action would only be lawful if at least 50 of them turned out to vote and 40 of those backed the strike.

No ban on agency 'fill-ins':

The government plans to lift the ban on agency workers being brought in to fill the gaps. On Radio 4's Today programme, Justin Webb suggested to Nick Boles that this measure was unfair because it could make the strike ineffective and therefore meaningless.

Picket line limits:

It would be a criminal offence for a picket line to include more than six people. The government is also looking at how to make it a criminal offence to intimidate workers who choose not to strike.

Political levy opt-in:

The government wants workers to have to 'opt in' to any political levy, rather than 'opting out'. The Guardian says this would probably "blow a hole in Labour party funding because the number of union members who will proactively support paying the political levy will be much lower than those who pay the political levy through inertia".

Public sector time limit:

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

What happens next?

The Trades Union Bill will get its first reading later today but will not be debated in the Commons immediately. Although the plans are as radical as those introduced by Norman Tebbit in the Thatcher era, The Times reports that the government feels confident it has the public on its side.

If the Bill passes into law, trade unionists might feel the only way to respond is with 'wildcat' protest strikes. The Unite leader, Len McCluskey, has revealed that his union's Rules Conference voted last week to delete the words "so far as may be lawful" before the list of Unite's objectives, potentially allowing workers to carry out illegal strikes.

"We are ready for the fight," he said, "and we will, I believe, find allies throughout society, amongst everyone who cares for freedom and democracy."

But will he? In The Spectator, Leo McKinstry argues that trade unions are no longer "the authentic voice of the British working class". Instead, they are "noisy pressure groups" representing public sector workers. Just one in seven private sector workers is unionised, compared with just over half of state employees.

Without the Lib Dems holding them back, the Conservative government now has a mandate to "put the unions in their place", says McKinstry, and should not be afraid to use it.