The TUC Conference rumbles on with some rather blood-curdling statements about the
future of industrial relations in Britain. The RMT leader Bob Crow called for a campaign of civil disobedience and spoke of ‘confronting… the enemy’. The PCS’ Mark
Serwotka has spoken of a ‘campaign of resistance the likes of which we will not have seen in this country for decades.’ Perhaps for good measure, the TUC also took the opportunity
to attack our recent report on modernising industrial relations.
The trade unions are arguing vociferously against not only the very clear necessity for reductions in public expenditure, but also any change in industrial relations procedures which are largely obsolete for the modern workplace.
One current problem is that ballots typically neither specify a particular grievance nor indicate the length and nature of industrial action. Another is that unions devote so little of their resources to keeping membership lists accurate that they often fall foul of balloting requirements – failing to issue ballots to members entitled to them or issuing them to members not entitled.
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