“We must grab this real opportunity to ensure that we see an intake of MPs committed to repealing Minimum Service Levels as a priority, combining a mass of sympathetic parliamentarians and a strong campaign pressuring Westminster from the outside.”
By Henry Fowler, Strike Map
Campaigning with councillors and candidates
Here we go again. Nearly five years on from the last time, we are going to the polls on 4 July 2024. Unlike 2019, when the radical overhaul of labour law and the enhancement of workers’ rights contained with the Institute of Employment Rights ‘Manifesto for Labour Law’ was the basis of Labour’s manifesto, this time round, the radical improvements to employment law and workers’ rights we need are in danger of not being prioritised.
Despite Keir Starmer’s Labour confirming back in January 2023, that a future Labour government would repeal the latest attack on our right to strike – Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 – the recent series of attempted ‘U turns’ on the New Deal for Working means there is a real need during this election campaign to ensure the abolition of anti-strike laws remains high on the election campaign agenda.
That is why last week during our campaign call with councillors, our Defend the Right to Strike campaign launched two new actions to build our campaign to defend the right to strike during this election period.
The first of these is our open letter to Keir Starmer MP for labour councillors to sign. It is critical that building on a strong start to our campaign, which has seen a number of local authorities confirm they will not issue work notices, that we generate pressure on the Labour leadership from below, to ensure any future Government will repeal Minimum Service Levels as soon as possible in the new Parliament.
Our second newly launched action was our general election candidates pledge. This pledge enables anyone standing in the general election to confirm they will prioritise campaigning to repeal the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 and other anti-union legislation.
Developing strong links with candidates who want to support this campaign provides us with a foundation for ensuring that there will be a group of MPs that are committed to defending the right to strike.
Campaigning against the Bill and Act
Our work with councillors and candidates are the latest in a long line of actions and coalition building we have been a part of with campaign groups and trade unions. In January 2023, Strike Map and the Campaign For Trade Union Freedom launched a letter for workplace reps to sign on behalf of members in defiance of this law, this saw union activists representing over one million workers take the action.
This was followed quickly by a successful rally and action planning on the future of the campaign, which developed this action document on how we oppose this latest law politically, within our communities and within our trade unions.
After the passing of this act and it becoming law, our coalition was clear we must stop this law from being used, rather than waiting for the first union to be sanctioned and putting up with its continued use until a new Government repeals it.
We recognised that local authorities held a particularly important place in the working of the Act. In education, councils are the biggest of employers of teachers and ancillary staff, bigger than any academy chain. Many local councils or regional authorities have responsibility for light rail, that is underground railways and tramways. Councils or combined authorities also have responsibility for fire and rescue services. These three sectors include many thousands of workers, trade union members, who could be impacted by an employer issuing a work notice, compelling selected workers to attend their work, if staff go on strike.
That is why in March of this year, alongside 14 national trade unions and campaign groups, we launched our write to your council leader. This provided a simple postcode tool to enable the public to lobby their council leader to ensure that as many local authority employers announce they will not use work notices when confronted with a strike of their staff.
We combined this tool for the public with a campaign briefing for all councillors and a model motion. These resources were provided to encourage individual councillors to sign our campaign pledge. Over the last few months, this campaign has had a real quick impact with Bolton, Dumfries and Galloway, Glasgow, Islington, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, South Lanarkshire, all confirming through motions and or public statements that they will not use work notices as they could do under the terms of the Minimum Service Levels legislation.
Although repealing the latest anti union law is important, our campaign has always been clear that abolishing the latest law provides the space for a national conversation about repealing the last forty years of anti-union laws, documented here.
Elections come and go but we must grab this real opportunity to ensure that we see an intake of MPs committed to repealing Minimum Service Levels as a priority, combining a mass of sympathetic parliamentarians and a strong campaign pressuring Westminster from the outside, producing a strong platform for rebalancing labour law in this country.
We hope you can support our actions detailed below and help us defend the right to strike through this election and beyond.
Our campaign is proudly backed by: Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), Bakers, Food & Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), Hospital Consultants & Specialists Association (HCSA), National Education Union (NEU), Peace & Justice Project (PJP), Public & Commercial Services Union (PCS), Psychotherapy & Counselling Union (PCU), Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA), United Road Transport Union (URTU), Arise.
Actions you can take
- Labour councillors letter to Keir Starmer MP
If you are a Labour councillor, sign our letter to Keir Starmer MP to ensure he prioritises defending the right to strike in the next Labour Government.
- General Election candidates pledge
Standing in the GE24? Or know someone who is, ask them to sign our campaign pledge.
- Councillors pledge
Pledge to support the campaign as a local councillor here.
- Model motion for your council
Download our model motion here.
- Campaign briefing for councillors
Download our briefing for all councillors here.
- IER briefing on the new anti-strike laws
Read the briefing here.
This election we are campaigning to make austerity unlawful – GFTU
“The damage to our services, our communities and impact on our society has been catastrophic… This election, we must make sure austerity is finished forever.”
By Henry Fowler, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU)
It has been a long 14 years since that infamous budget in 2010 that devastated our public services, the result of £40 billion of cuts.
The damage to our services, our communities and impact on our society has been catastrophic. The Progressive Economy Forum estimates this ‘Austerity’ has cost the United Kingdom half a trillion pounds of public spending.
Our affiliate, the Social Workers’ Union (SWU), recently found that austerity has meant that two-thirds of their members have witnessed young people living in conditions with excessive levels of mould.
This is not the only impact of austerity, in 2022 the waiting list in England for non-urgent care in hospitals had reached a new record high of 7.2 million people. This is combined with the increase in child poverty, which the No Child Left Behind campaign has said amounts to 3.9 million children – 8 pupils in every class of 30 – living in poverty. And it’s only getting worse.
Rising poverty and rising waiting lists have been combined with a huge growth of inequality in the UK. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said the gap between the richest in society and the rest of the population has widened over the 10-year period (from 2010); the income share of the richest 1% increased from 7% to 8.2% between FYE 2011 and FYE 2020.
We cannot let this continue. This election, we must make sure austerity is finished forever.
That is why as part of a coalition of 10 other trade unions and campaign groups, we have launched the Make Equality Real campaign. This campaign is directly calling on all political parties to make a clear commitment in their election manifestos to make section 1 of the equality act – the socio-economic duty – law, reducing poverty, and helping make austerity unlawful.
Our petition to all Westminster party leader’s states “the socio-economic duty should be written into the Equality Act 2010 as part of a campaign to end austerity and make equality real. Ensuring that everyone in Britain can live secure and fulfilling lives.”
Alongside a petition, we have outlined a pledge for all candidates standing in the general election and provided a website of campaign materials for workplaces and social media.
Dr. Cath Lowther, general secretary of our affiliate, Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), describes the impact of austerity on the work of Educational Psychologists, “Our members have seen first-hand the damaging impact that 14 years of austerity have done to our vital public and community services, this campaign is about ensuring this cannot happen again in future.”
We are really proud to be working with the Equality Trust as a key part of this campaign coalition, they have for a long time campaigned for and has seen the positive benefits of enacting the social economic duty at council level. Priya Sahani-Nicholas, the Equality Trust Co-Executive Director, describes the impact of socio-economic duty can have in improving equality when implemented, “As the result of actions taken, Scotland has the lowest levels of child poverty it has seen in 30 years, with 60,000 fewer children living in poverty in 2023 compared with 2017. Reducing inequality and reducing the impacts of inequality should be a dedicated and primary focus of all governments. The UK is the 5th richest country in the world – so we know money is available. We are calling on our elected representatives to prioritise greater equality.”
We are coordinating this campaign with the aim of uniting both the trade union movement and wider campaigners together to help end austerity. Many of our affiliates have campaigned for years to see an end to austerity and through this campaign we aim to connect them with at home and abroad Europe, working with trade union partners on the continent
This campaign is supported by: Artists’ Union England (AUE), Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) Community, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), National Association of Headteachers (NAHT), National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), Social Workers Union (SWU), and The Equality Trust.
Join our campaign and help make austerity history here.
- Henry Fowler is the Head of Education, Campaigns and Organising at the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU).
- You can follow Henry on Twitter/X and follow the GFTU on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
- You can find out more about the Make Equality Real campaign here.
