The Union Fightback Begins

This article was published in the Morning Star Monday July 6th

The union fightback begins
By Carolyn Jones & Tony Burke

Sixty years after the International Labour Organisation's convention on the right to organise and to collective bargaining came into force, neoliberalism has turned the clock back. Workers' rights to organise have been restricted, allowing employers to attack collective agreements.

But the fightback has begun. Recent industrial disputes reflect the frustration of workers and their determination to defend their terms and conditions and their right to organise.

And it's no surprise. The 21st century global labour market is brutal - insecure employment, temporary and casual labour, long hours and hiring and firing at will.

Victimisation of trade unionists and the sack for anyone challenging an employer are increasingly common. Employment rights are denied and trade unions face eye-watering fines when they back their members.

Workers are being played off against each other, forced to reduce their terms and conditions to hold on to a job, British Airways' "Your money or your job" demand being the latest employer tactic.

As we stare capitalism's crisis in the face, politicians and working people have a choice. Do we want the chaos of unregulated workplaces and unofficial disputes or do we want civilised negotiations between trade unions and employers built on fair employment rights and backed by free trade unions?

Since the 1970s, neoliberal theories have led to attacks on trade union rights. Anti-union laws were introduced to prevent unions "interfering" with the new God - the free market. It started under Thatcher, continued under Blair and remains in place under Brown.

Such attacks are not restricted to the right to strike. All the statutory props previously used to support collective bargaining have been demolished.

In 1980 the Tories abolished a law which extended the terms of a collective agreement to all employers in that industry - reducing at a stroke the number of workers who have their terms and conditions negotiated by a union.

Then in 1993 the duty on conciliation service ACAS to promote collective bargaining was removed by the Tories.

Labour responded in 1999 with its flagship piece of legislation, the Employment Relations Act.

But the recognition procedures introduced by that Act have turned into a bureaucratic nightmare for unions.

Ballots, bargaining units and unfair practices make it extremely difficult for unions to win recognition in the face of aggressive anti-union employers.

And it's not just the unions saying that.

Britain's recognition legislation has been consistently criticised for failing to protect the right to organise and to bargain by the very organisation which, 60 years ago, established those rights.

As recently as 2007, the ILO committee of experts criticised British law on no less than four counts - for excluding small companies from the recognition procedures, for allowing employers to sign sweetheart deals with bogus unions, for doing nothing to prevent employers using unfair labour practices to scare workers against voting for a union and for the "all or nothing" approach of the legislation which prevents unions representing their members unless they win over 50 per cent of the total workforce.

The effects have been devastating for unions, leading to a decline in membership density in many countries (see box) and a drastic fall in the numbers covered by collective agreements.

Collective bargaining coverage in Britain has declined faster and further than any other EU country. Once standing proudly at 85 per cent of the labour force - as continues to be the case throughout much of the EU - the coverage of collective wage agreements in Britain has fallen to only 33 per cent of the workforce.

However, this is not a uniform picture. The election of Barack Obama has given unions in the US some hope. Discussions around the Employee Free Choice Act and Obama's clear support for the workers occupying the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago last year sent strong signals to working people.

In Latin America, the only continent openly challenging the neoliberal agenda, trade unions, though fragmented and industrially weak, have featured prominently in much of the political change.

But victories are few and recent decisions from the European Court of Justice threaten to undermine unions still further. So as we celebrate 60 years of the right to organise, it is appropriate to review how unions are fighting to reverse declining trends. There are three main strategies.

First, many unions have adopted strategic organising policies aimed at building membership from the shop floor upwards. Specialist organising units have been established and hundreds of union organisers appointed, tasked with leading tough and aggressive organising campaigns.

Second, unions have been merging. Unite in Britain, Ver.di in Germany and AMWU in Australia are some of the larger examples. These mergers are to be welcomed as they give unions more industrial and political strength and protect smaller unions facing decline because of technology or job losses.

Unions have also been working more progressively with each other, through the international federations or via the signing of memorandums of understating. Global union federations are also campaigning to win global agreements with companies based on ILO standards.

One of the most important developments has been Workers Uniting, a global union established by Unite and the United Steelworkers which is uniting those workers in the US, Ireland and Canada working for the same company.

Third, direct action is returning to centre stage. Capitalism is brutalising workers. The law is failing workers and Labour isn't delivering the protection required.

In Britain, the time for requesting minimum guarantees for unions and their members may well have passed. Last year's reasonable request from unions for a Trade Union Freedom Bill - a mild and moderate measure - was rejected by the Labour government. It was a missed opportunity.

It is said that one person moaning is a complaint - two people moaning is a campaign. Organised labour complaining and campaigning industrially and politically is a fightback. Sixty years on from the signing of ILO Convention 98, the fightback has started.

History of the ILO
The ILO was formed in 1919 and its origins can be traced back to the inhumane working conditions endured by workers during the industrial revolution.

Employers argued that fear of "international competition" prevented the improvement of workers' rights. Sound familiar?

The answer presented was to dilute unrestricted international competition by establishing minimum living conditions throughout the world, conditions below which no worker should be allowed to fall.

This was not an act of kindness - it was more a means of placating workers.

By 1919, having lived through the harshness of the industrial revolution and the ravages of the first world war, workers were getting organised politically and industrially.

The 1906 Trade Disputes Act, giving workers the right to strike and to take solidarity action, came about following strikes by dockers in Hull, butchers in Belfast and railway workers at Taff Vale. Workers were awakening.

Politicians and employers feared the spread of the Russian revolution and set out to defuse tension by establishing a body of "minimum" principles for regulating labour conditions internationally.

Hence the birth of the ILO. Its first principle was "labour is not a commodity or article of commerce."

Modern-day judgements from the European Court of Justice highlight the extent to which we have moved away from that founding principle.

Today ECJ judges look on labour as a commodity to be moved around the globe in search of profits.

Other principles followed - on the right of association, the payment of wages, the eight-hour day and 48-hour week, rest periods, abolition of child labour, equal pay and a system of inspection to enforce the law.

Over the years, those principles were translated into a labour code, a code that today consists of more than 187 conventions.

Recent disputes in Britain suggest that a newly invigorated international labour code is long overdue.

This article is edited from papers given by Institute of Employment Rights director Carolyn Jones and Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke at the Morning Star conference on June 20.