Cameron vs Ordinary Working People

Following the recent general strike by public sector workers, David Cameron pledges “to overhaul an archaic law" stating that strike laws are too easy for workers to rely upon and that “it is time to legislate and it will be in the Conservative manifesto” for the next election. It seem they propose to ban all ‘electronic picketing’ (the use of texts/emails by unions to gain support), make it a requirement for a 50% turnout for any strike ballot to be lawful (rather than a majority as used to elect MPs) and banning ‘rolling strikes’, bringing in a 3 month ‘shelf life’ for any strike action before a new ballot is needed.

So his policy is further changes to the same strike laws that the Court of Appeal described in 2012 as “highly complex legislation”, which can be seen as “a series of traps or hurdles” for a union to negotiate.

It’s clear that David Cameron simply wishes to make it harder and harder for workers to resort to strike action.

This from the leader of the same party whose leader some years ago described the right to strike as, in the language of the day, “the foundation of the liberties of the working man. In it are involved all those things which matter most in his workaday life…the right to demand improved conditions, shorter hours, higher wages; the right to defend himself against petty tyranny or ill-usage. The capitalist system on which our whole present civilisation is erected has grown up on the basis of the right to strike… the right to strike is the greatest glory of the capitalist system…”

Who was that? A certain Winston S. Churchill, admittedly not a politician who is often perceived as being a friend to the unions or to workers but a politician who seemed to have common sense and a sense of fairness.

David Sorensen - Partner
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