WeeklyWorker

02.05.1996

Trade Union document

SLP policy amendments

In response to the ‘SLP ignores members’ article in last week’s Weekly Worker we have received further information regarding policy workshop discussions and amendments to papers which have not reached conference. Last week we reported that though the Republican Constitution document was submitted on time, Brian Heron subsequently informed the group coordinator that it was not being presented to conference. We have since been informed that, quite mysteriously, it is considered “unconstitutional”, but nobody seems to know what this means. Perhaps Brian could enlighten us.

We also mentioned that the overwhelming decision by the Ireland working group at the March 2 national SLP meeting to remove the clause “in the lifetime of one parliament” and replace it with “troops out now” has been forgotten by those putting the documents together for conference. The original clause reappears in the circulated documents.

This week we have been sent information from the Trade Union policy working group led by Carolyn Sikorski, which met on several occasions subsequent to the March 2 meeting. Carolyn redrafted the original March 2 policy document and the subsequent meetings’ agreed amendments. The group also submitted other separate amendments which, although supported by a clear majority at a reconvened meeting have not been circulated. Neither the agreed redraft nor the majority amendments have been presented to conference.

The document circulated is an individual rewrite by Carolyn Sikorski which apparently ignores many of the suggestions made by the group.

Naturally the steering committee is very busy and we hope that these are simply mistakes due to pressure of time. We publish here the amendments suggested by members of the TU working group which hopefully all members will be able to consider in more detail over the coming year.

Helen Ellis

Below is the document first redrafted by Carolyn Sikorski after the March 2 meeting with the group’s agreed amendments in square brackets

Socialist Labour believes that trades unions, controlled democratically by their members, are vital for a free society.

Socialist Labour is opposed to all laws which interfere with, or allow others to interfere with, the rights of trade union members to democratically decide how to run their union or to take action that has been democratically agreed on.

The fear and uncertainty, increased harassment by management, job insecurity, poor pay and long, unsociable hours and the erosion of sick pay and pensions now endured by the majority of workers are a direct result of the shackling of our unions. Many unions often cannot defend workers against these abuses. Many of the most oppressed workers are not members of a trade union. Where unions are not recognised, union members often have to meet secretly.

All the current anti-union laws are completely unjust and deprive trades unionists of the most basic democratic rights. They criminalise trade union activity and are intended to ensure that workers cannot defend themselves, other workers or their jobs, terms and conditions. The laws also aim to stop trades unionists from effectively defending public services and welfare benefits, from taking political industrial action and from challenging unjust and repressive laws.

Trades unionists’ rights have been smashed because when the laws were brought in any groups of workers who opposed them were left to fight alone. At each step those fighting back were defeated. The majority of trades union leaders and the leadership of the TUC and Labour Party (who are now backing new Labour) refused to support them and demanded that the laws were complied with. Their actions, combined with the defeats of those in struggle, ensured that the legislation became a reality, a weapon to be used against trades unions.

New Labour leaders have stated that they will ignore Labour Party conference policy for the repeal of anti-union laws. The Maastricht Treaty Social Chapter will not restore trade union rights.

Under a Conservative, or new Labour, government the only way that trades unionists will get rid of the laws is for the legislation to be consistently ignored [replace ignored with challenged] and broken. Like anti-union laws in the past and the poll tax legislation, the laws will then become impossible to enforce. Positive rights can only be won, implemented and defended when the anti-union laws have been defeated.

A Socialist Labour government would bring in legislation that would fully guarantee union members’ rights to recognition by the employer, to run their own union, to decide on, and carry out, their own action and to full freedom of assembly. [Include points on employment rights from day one and the right to take secondary industrial action.]

Socialist Labour will:

Before Conference 1997 the Socialist Labour National Executive Committee will consult members and, where appropriate, sympathetic experts in the field so that proposals can be drawn up and debated on:

and also so that:

A final paragraph at the end of the document was submitted as a separate amendment

The Socialist Labour National Executive Committee will also ensure that our trade union work [within and across the unions] is coordinated now and that proposals for how this is to be done in future [including the possibility of workplace branches] are brought to Conference 1997.

Below we reprint the other amendments to the document discussed at the meetings which were expected to be included in the final version of the document. Those in square brackets in this instance were to be submitted as separate amendments

Socialist Labour will:

[Before conference 1997 the Socialist Labour Party National Executive Committee will:

The following is a further amendment to the trade union policy paper discussed at the South London branch meeting. The amendment is split into two. The first half is submitted by the whole branch. The last paragraph in square brackets was not supported by the meeting but has been submitted by an individual

Replace the final four paragraphs of the draft anti-trade union legislation paper with the following:

Under a Conservative, or new Labour, government the only way that trade unionists will get rid of the laws is for the legislation to be consistently challenged and broken. Like anti-union laws in the past and the poll tax legislation, the laws will then become impossible to enforce. Positive rights can only be won, implemented and defended when the anti-union laws have been defeated.

A Socialist Labour government would bring in legislation that would fully guarantee:

Socialist Labour will:

Before Conference 1997 the Socialist Labour National Executive Committee will consult members and, where appropriate, sympathetic experts in the field so that proposals can be drawn up and debated on

and also so that:

[Socialist Labour will:

Organise, by the end of 1996, a conference of all SLP members belonging to a trade union. This conference will elect a standing SLP Trade Union Committee to help the National Executive Committee organise the SLP work within the trade union movement. This Conference will also discuss other organisational and policy issues for SLP interventions within the trade union movement.]