A key union backer will put Sir Keir Starmer under pressure to repeal all Margaret Thatcher’s anti-strike laws at next month’sTrades Union Congress.
TheFire Brigades Union (FBU) has put forward a motion, expected to pass, demanding the “repeal of all anti-union laws and for positive legal rights for trade unions”.
This would include the 1980s laws that banned flying pickets and closed shops, and also brought in secret ballots before industrial action and restricted collective bargaining.
It comes after it emerged that the TUC is also expected to press the Government to restore public sector pay to 2011 levels in real terms – a move that would cost £27 billion, according to a Conservative analysis.
The FBU, which donated £100,000 towards Labour’s election campaign, wants Sir Keir to stick to his pledge toget rid of Tory laws, enacted since 2010, that force vital organisations such as rail and fire services to provide a minimum level of service when on strike.
But the motion goes further, demanding thatall anti-union laws be removed from the statute book.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the FBU, who this year holds the rotating presidency of the TUC, told The Telegraph: “The UK has the most restrictive and authoritarian anti-union laws in the western world.
“Robbing workers of the ability to stand up for themselves has driven down wages and made living standards and public services worse for the vast majority of people.
“While the FBU welcomes Labour’s commitments to repeal the most recent anti-union laws, we back the repeal of allanti-union laws introduced after 1979. We will continue to advocate for this position under a Labour Government.”
Unions gave £2.4 million to Labour during the election campaign, and almost £30 million since Sir Keir was elected as the Labour leader.
News of the motion comes after the Government settled industrial disputes withjunior doctors and train drivers, awarding theminflation-busting pay increases. The Tories have accused Labour of being in the pockets of union paymasters.
Another motion laid down at the TUC by thePCS union, which represents nearly 200,000 public sector workers, calls for “pay restoration in the public sector” to be a “key feature of our campaigning with the new government”.
The motion points out that public sector pay levels have fallen by an average 1.5 per cent per year since 2011. Although the PCS is not putting an exact figure on the pay rises it wants, any above-inflation increase would hamper attempts to keep a grip on public finances.
Caving in to the demand would cost the taxpayer at least an extra £27 billion a year, according to estimates provided by the Tories.
It would mean the salary bill for civil servants balloons by £3.4 billion per year, according to the analysis. The cost of GP pay would rise by £3.65 billion and junior doctors would still get an extra £680 million in spite of their recent 22 per cent salary rise.
The cost of restoring nurses’ wages would be £3.9 billion, the analysis shows. For teachers it would be £8.1 billion, and for the police a further £978 million. Backdating the pay of council officials to 2010 levels would cost an extra £6.2 billion.
The £27 billion price tag would come on top of the £14 billion of pay deals already struck by the Government, taking the total bill to £41 billion.
Laura Trott MP, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “By delivering ‘no strings attached’ pay deals that are in some instances more than 10 times the rate of inflation, Labour are now in an out of control union bidding war on pay, and it is the taxpayer who will have to foot the bill.
“Labour promised over 50 times during the election campaign not to raise taxes on working people. The British people will not forgive the betrayal when they do.”
The FBU motion calls on the TUC to reiterate its opposition tominimum service levels legislation, which forces vital sectors such as the railways, NHS and the fire service to provide a decent level of service even on strike days.
It calls on Labour to stick to its pledges to introduce laws within 100 days to repeal anti-union legislation brought in since 2010, including a law which means strikes can only go ahead as long as a certain proportion of the workforce has voted in a ballot.
“Congress notes the Labour Party’s 2024 general election manifesto committed to implementing ‘Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay: Delivering a New Deal for Working People’ in full – introducing legislation within 100 days,” it said.
“Congress further notes that Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay committed torepealing the Trade Union Act 2016, the Minimum Service Levels (Strikes) Act and other anti-union legislation. Congress recommits to the TUC’s longstanding policy for the repeal of all anti-union laws and for positive legal rights for trade unions.”
In a separate motion,Equity, the actors’ union, says it wants to extend all workers’ rights to migrants.
“This Congress believes that every worker should have the right to freely change employer, join a trade union, and negotiate for better pay and conditions,” it says.
“Congress notes that the current skilled worker visa scheme removes workers’ rights to freely change employer by tying the visa holder’s right to live and work in the UK to a specific job, while also deliberately holding down wages.
“This scheme means migrant workers, particularly in construction and social care, are at huge risk of exploitation and unable to seek higher-paid employment or even leave an exploitative job.
“Restrictive visas give employers high levels of power over workers and complaining or trying to enforce rights can lead to workers not only losing their job, but also their right to stay and work in the UK.”
Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, a former business secretary, said: “This is what the union movement has always wanted – the march back to the 1970s. It would be no surprise if this weak Government gave into them.”
Ms Reeves insisted she had not “caved in” to union demands in an interview with The Guardian.
She added: “Keir Starmer and I decide our policy, not the trade unions.There are no blank cheques.”
