Right of Workers to Demand a Ballot Before Industria Action is Taken

Part of New Clause 3 – in the House of Commons at 5:15 pm on 22 April 1980.

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Photo of Mr Greville Janner Mr Greville Janner , Leicester West 5:15, 22 April 1980

Certainly. The first of those Acts, in 1971, was designed to get rid of the Industrial Relations Act and to strengthen the unfair dismissal rules which are being weakened again by a Conservative Government.

The second Act was designed to give trade unions the freedom to carry on their own affairs, to have disclosure of information in the course of collective bargaining—which the Conservative Government introduced in 1971 but never implemented—to be consulted about redundancies, alone among worker organisations to have the right to be consulted about health and safety, and not to be prosecuted or persecuted for carrying out their duties and functions. That freedom is now being restricted by this legislation. There is only one object in this legislation—to prevent trade unions from carrying out their functions freely and from regulating their own affairs.

I submit that it is for the trade unions to decide whether a secret ballot is appropriate in a particular case. The miners, the AUEW and the electricians have secret ballots because they have decided to have them. We do not have secret ballots in this House. No one has ever suggested that we should.