Campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Bill - May 1
The TUC has named May Day, Monday May 1, in London as the national demonstration in support of the Trade Union Freedom Bill.
The march Assembles at 12 noon at Clerkenwell Green and will proceed to Trafalgar Square for a rally at 2.30.
* All branches and regional councils are requested to put this day in your diary.
* Please put this issue on the agenda for your next meeting so you can begin to plan to mobilise for the biggest possible turnout in support of the Trade Union Freedom Bill.
* Support for attendance at the demonstration can come from branch funds.
The campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Bill affects all RMT members. If we can win more freedoms we can more effectively represent our members - its as simple as that.
This is a priority RMT campaign and as you will be aware it was an RMT motion at the 2005 TUC that called on the TUC to campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Bill, supported by a national march, rally and lobby.
The RMT Parliamentary Group has been instrumental in promoting the Trade Union Freedom Bill and already 114 MPs have signed the House of Commons Early Day Motion. Please don't forget to ask your MP to sign this motion.
Never has there been a greater need for such a Bill. The removal of trade union rights is one of the most important factors behind the collapse of collective bargaining coverage in the UK, and has therefore contributed to the marked widening of the gulf between rich and poor over the last 25 years.
And RMT members will know only to well that anti-trade union legislation has been successively used by employers to challenge ballots and disputes in defence of our conditions.
Although the Trade Union Freedom Bill is not intended to reverse all of the anti-union laws it will address those fundamental incursions into the rights of trade unions which hinder unions from effectively protecting their members - this will include theright to take solidarity action, the right to strike and simplification of balloting procedures.
The timing for this campaign could not be better. 2006 marks the centenary of the passing of the 1906 Trades Disputes Act which secured for unions the legal freedom to take industrial action, and indeed greater legal freedom of action than they enjoy today.
The RMT is well versed in our history in this area as it was the preceding Taff Vale Railway Strike judgment against our forerunner, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants which caused the outcry that led to the 1906 Trades Disputes Act.
One hundred years on let's once again mobilise and lead the campaign for Trade Union Freedoms!