Thursday, October 04, 2007

Rally for Trade Union freedom

THE UNITED Campaign to Repeal the Anti-Trade Union Laws is organising a mass rally and lobby of Parliament for Thursday 18th October in support of the trade union rights and freedoms Bill.
PCS, the civil service union, has been taking a key role in this campaign, and is one of 24 trade unions supporting it.
The campaign aims to repeal all anti trade union laws and bring in better rights and protection for workers taking industrial action.
The timetable for the day is:

• 4.00 - 5.30pm assemble & demonstrate outside House of Commons;
• 5.30 - 7.30pm Rally in Committee Room 14, House of Commons.

Postcards to send to MPs asking them to attend Parliament 19 October to support the Bill and postcards supporting the Bill are available to download from the PCS website.
In 1906, the Trade Disputes Act created for the first time protection for trade unions promoting industrial action to further the interests of their members in a trade dispute.
It is ironic that, 100 years later, the legal restrictions on trade unions’ freedom are not only some of the most severe in the West – but significantly greater than those Parliament imposed a century ago. We now have our best chance in years to start dismantling these laws. Support is growing for a Trade Union Freedom Bill that would restore some of our rights – stopping strikes being banned from trivial ballot irregularities, allowing union members to take action alongside workmates who work for a different employer because of contracting and privatisation.

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