'WE MEET at a time of crisis. Crisis for the country, for employment, crisis for industry.
This was Len opening remark to the largest gathering of trade union ficials in the history of the British labour movement.
More than 1000 delegates from trade union executives came to Wembley on Monday 5 April to draw up a strategy to defeat the Tebbit anti-union law. But, crisis notwithstanding, this powerful body did little advance the against Tebbit.
The conference endorsed the TUC strategy. It had little choice. Amendments and resolutions were not allowed. Significantly, no union protested at this.
Conference also took the, precedented step of giving the TUC General Council power to call and coordinate industrial action against the Bill. This contrasts with the fight against the 1971 Industrial Relations Act when the action was led by individual unions notably the engineers' union, the AUEW.
This was dressed up as a big step forward. In fact, it is a retreat. Instead of unions undertaking to respond at the point of attack, they have given the General Council the power io decide what response if any there should be.
Len Murray's speech spells this out: 'The GC will... deal with unions, not with individuals or groups workers. And the support they give • anliul be automatic or :ional: there will be no blank cheques.
nele lay well be situations from which we will have to extricate unions: that would not be the first time that the GC has had to advise a union to draw back from a no-win sualon.
The point is repeated in point six crisis CCCUTeS.
Murray's waics ofpossible.
will be expected to tion that would follow. fight Big stick restrict action.
This use ine lepistalion.
damages.
Spot anti-unionist take action, to take on the closed shop.
Lack CICS.
most likely opt for legal defence.
Faso lo pay compensanon.
This combination of uncondi- to the TUC, need a head-on with Thatcher. of the eight point plan to smash Tebbit: 'Affiliated unions shall continue to observe strictly the requirements of the TUC Disputes Principals and Pro"The GC will support unions having consulted the TUC, take steps in accordance with its adV en other words, the shop floor will be discouraged from taking action, and decisions about action will be as far removed from the rank and file as More than that, individual unions control their members on pain of being disowned by the General Council and the isolaFar from a campaign for mass action on Tebbit, the TUC is seking to dovetails neatly with the other prong of its strategy. This aimed at persuading employers not to The hope is, that by waving the big stick, employers will not attack the closed shop and will not sue for But the problem is that the legislation leaves it wide open for every tinin the country to and it encourages scabs So even if some employers hold back there will be plenty of people to press ahead. Even then, when an atthe indications in ine TUC document are that the GC will The flm fighting fund will be used not only to fight legal actions, but tactics, of waiting until individuals take the fight of the tightest possible control from the top, and of relying on legal action, is based on a sender Labour hope that the unions can sit out the policies. next two years of Thatcher and have the legislation repealed by an incoming Labour government without the From Phil Davies, TUC leaders at conclusion of conference Even this gutless strategy faces big problems. With the SDP now a force to be reckoned with, there is every possibility that the next government will be a calition involving them And they have supported Tebbit all along the line.
Indeed. , in some respects, notably on LP affiliation, they go further.
The best possible way to ensure the return of a Labour government is to kick out the Tories and fight for a guvemlichl radical Those trade union leaders who support the Labour Party right are in fact bulding bridges to the SDP and their anti-union positions.
The strategy for defeating Tebbit put forward by the TUC is right in line with the policy throughout the life of this government, and in line with the policies of wage restraint and austerity they supported during the last Labour governIlicill The result is that the membership is less union laws than last time around.
The TUC uses this as an excuse for even more right wing policies Murray sees this as a victory for Tory propaganda which 'has even tound credence among many of our own members, who. illogically are at best apathetic and at worst they have followed prepared to fight antiLen at Plessey's.
... paradoxically and Tebbit.
:sympathetic to the government's purposes.
The situation is not a paradox, nor is it illogical, nor is it Tory propaganda. It is an indictment of the righi wing policies of the union leaderships.
As Terry Marsland of the tobacco workers, the only woman delegate to speak, put it, 'The GC should be seen to be giving leadership to the fight for the 35 hour week, and in supporting struggles like those at Lee Jeans and Inevitably, it will fall on the rank and file who will face the spearhead of the attack to start the fight agains:
And then we will have to force the TUC to act.