Latest editorial
Kwasi Kwarteng Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy arrives at BBC Broadcasting House in London, in May 2022
THE government is being challenged by 12 trade unions over its controversial change in the law to allow firms to hire agency workers to replace strikers.
Thompsons Solicitors has written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng on behalf of the unions claiming the new regulations are a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It also claimed that the new regulations violate the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement, which commits Britain to respecting, promoting and implementing internationally recognised core labour standards, including those relating to freedom of association and the recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
Our members face serious violence, crumbling workplaces and exposure to dangerous drugs — it is outrageous we still cannot legally use our industrial muscle to fight back and defend ourselves, writes STEVE GILLAN
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
