THE MASS picket which put the frightners on the Tories — Saltely gates during the miners' strike in 1972. The new Employment Bill would make anti-union law, published last week are to:
strikers' own workplace.
extending the use of secret ballots.
*Making a worker prove that his employer prove that it was "fair'.
*End effective picketing by restricting it to *Counter democracy in the unions by *Undermine closed shops by requiring an 80 per cent majority vote to secure them, and giving anti-union workers every chance to opt dismissal was unfair, rather than having the Here PAT KANE examines the implications of the proposals on picketing, ballots, and the closed shop, and PHIL HEARSE reports on victimisations at Fiat in Turin, which might well have inspired management at British 100 per cent closedpickets;
Most workers had never heard the phrase 'secondary picketing' before the lorry drivers' strike last winter. The media wipped up bysteria about the actions of Transport Union militants who picketed places other than their companies' depots. For the large majority of workers on strike there is no point in simply standing outside their own factory. If the strike is solid, then the factory is closed anyway, and in many industries it only takes a minority of the workforce to close What point is there in a miner standing outside a closed pit while imported coal is keeping the power stations running? Similarly, if a company has a large stockpile of finished goods these have to be stopped from leaving the Secondary picketing can mean the difference between workers winning quickly, or the employer being able to ride out any strike.
The other form of picketing which the Tories dread is the solidarity picket. When the working class can begin to break out of the sectoralism and isolation imposed on them, the real strength of the workers becomes even more clear. The need for united action against the government and employers becomes more of a reality.
When the Yorkshire miners arrived at the Grunwick picket lines, it became all the easier to campaign for support throughout the labour movement. The issues involved became clearer to - George Ward was an anti-union employer, whom the police defended 1 No crossing of picket lines;
3 For full rank & file discussion and Vision making by traditional a pickers to te positioned ar vateve locations necessary It win inte dispute and in sufficient numbers to be run by • Sonor call orade by imparty To cartement or disputes Witnou «ni rebor backs to, and decision making by. ine members concerned against the Grunwick workers demanding union recognition.
The same happened at Birmingham during the 1972 miners* strike. The miners, in order to win, had to stop the power stations. They placed pickets on railway lines and ASLEF members stopped their trains and wouldn't pass them. Arthur Scargill organised 'flying pickets' and when 10,000 arrived outside the Saltley forced it to be closed.
The ruling class could see organised labour, and it had to sever the muscle of rank and file workers in order to stop these types of actions. When there is only a handful of pickets — as Prior now proposes easily controlled by the police. Thus the right to picket is also about the effectively. simply the introduced attacks on the right to picket. labour leaders have always tried to contain the ability of the shop floor ieadership to take actions independently of the official structures. Last winter, for example, the TUC gave into the hysteria of the ruling class after the success of the lorry drivers. The future of the Contract was being challenged by the actions of these. workers, and it was soon smashed by the Ford pay strike. The main political project of the Labour government was being destroyed, and Westminster then he, along with the rest of the Tory government, would never have been elected.
MPs rarely obtain eighty per cent of the poll to send them to - the percentage vote that Prior now requires in order for the closed shop to be established.
No British government in this century has received such a high proportion of the poll in a general election, but the Tories hostility to working organisation obliges them to 'rig' union ballots.
The Tories want to stop the extension working class organisation, by placing huge obstacles in front of any trade unionists who want the closed won by of the working class. As little as 60 women were still ! the labour leaders Like the Tories, Saltley Gate Sociat Contract.
engineers restricted in numbers coke depot, they the power Already - they can be Tories, and the right to picket effective picketing Tories The implementation.
dockers, Prior proposals.
ported.
What's involved in the Prior proposals totally different. The Tories want to the ball restrict the rights of trade unionists. It is not simply matter of more "democracy", but democracy for whom?
There will not be any closed shop ballots that the employers and the government don't think they in advance there is any doubt about the outcome, then they can always rely on the 80 per cent rule to had to respond to thi chalienge to their authority.
they : tried to restrict th power of picketing. The TUC General counci concocted the 'Concordat', an agreement betwe en the union leaders and the Labour governmen which aimed to salvage what was left of th The which the proposed were remarkably similar to Prior's.
They recommended that pickets should b and controlled. by the union officials. Like the Tories, they wanted t curb the independent activity of the rank and fil we have seen the way in whic Prior's law has been employed at the Charin Cross Hospital. Against the propaganda of th conservatism unio leaders, we have to get back to the tradition strength of trade unionists — such as the right t The Rank and File Code of Practice poin out how to raise effective picketing. Every trad union body should adopt it and fight for it In the 1870s, the Criminal Law Amendmen Act was defeated by the mobilisation pf 50,00 workers. The Industrial Relations Act of th Heath government was smashed by the actions o engineers, and miners. If we are t the same type of actions are needed to defeat ti
----- pull-quotes -----
sanctions to be applied ag individuals breaking closed shop:
sho The right to vote was first the activity