Skip to main content
Advertise Buy the paper Contact us Shop Subscribe Support us
Three attacks on the right to strike
Severely rattled by the ongoing rail dispute, the Tories are looking at ways to force ‘minimum servicing,’ agency strike-breakers and a massive increase in damages onto the unions, writes Professor KEITH EWING

THE government response to the RMT dispute is straight from the Tory playbook.

A simmering resentment of a trade union, pick a fight with the same union, control the management of the dispute and use the dispute for partisan political ends which serve no public interest, with passengers and workers treated as collateral damage. Use it also as cover for even more attacks on the right to strike.

So far the strike has generated three proposals to change the law, adding to the burden of restrictions introduced since 1989.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Features / 17 November 2023
17 November 2023
A Labour government would be wise to implement new recommendations from the ILO that would protect trade unionists and their right to bargain collectively, writes Professor KEITH EWING
Features / 11 July 2023
11 July 2023
New writing has underlined the importance of the 1873 case that victimised striking farmworkers and led to a national outcry — yet aspects of the law used against them remain on the books, writes professor KEITH EWING
Features / 26 August 2022
26 August 2022
The latest plans to suppress industrial action are chilling. They are the hallmark of authoritarian government – and worse, argues Prof KEITH EWING
Features / 30 June 2022
30 June 2022
On the 50th anniversary of the jailing the Pentonville Five, Professor KEITH EWING recalls how British governments, Tory and Labour, have systematically adapted the law to suppress legitimate trade union activity
Similar stories
Features / 11 October 2024
11 October 2024
Labour’s long-awaited Employment Rights Bill does not do nearly enough to remove the restraints on trade unions or to give them the powers they need to make a significant difference to the lives of the millions of workers, write KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC
Britain / 19 August 2024
19 August 2024
by Our News Desk
Features / 10 August 2024
10 August 2024
Newly appointed director JAMES HARRISON sets out his vision for the Institute of Employment Rights, balancing healthy scepticism of Labour’s promises with proactive efforts to improve and expand workers’ rights
Books / 14 June 2024
14 June 2024
Given the threat that AI poses to workers, TONY BURKE recommends a pamphlet that sets out the way forward