An outline platform for union democracy

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Alan Thornett and John O'Mahony present a draft platform for union democracy in preparation for the April 3 conference. The draft will be discussed by the sponsoring organisations, and organisations sending delegates are also invited to send amendments and resolutions.

UNION OFFICIALS AND COMMITTEES

All officials should be elected for definite terms (no more than two years) and subject to recall at any time. Full-time officials should be paid the average wage in their industry.

Union policy-making bodies should be made up of elected lay members only. The same should go for Standing Orders Committees and Appeals Committees.

Full minutes and voting records of policy-making bodies should be circulated.

National delegate conferences should be held every year and should have supreme policy-making power.

ELECTIONS

Voting should be at workplace meetings or by workplace ballot. It should not be by postal ballot. We want informed, collective working class decision-making, not ballots manipulated by Fleet Street lie-machines. Election addresses must be circulated unaltered, and candidates and their supporters must have unrestricted rights to circulate literature.

STRIKES

Strikes should be automatically official until declared unofficial. All strikes for trade union principle, work conditions or wages should be made official. Strike committees must be elected from (and subject to recall by) mass meetings. Through mass meetings and strike bulletins, they must keep the membership fully informed throughout the strike.

There should be no secret negotiations. Every stage of negotiations should be subject to rank and file ratification at mass meetings. Mass meetings should never be presented with package deals unless each part of the deal has been voted on separately by the meeting beforehand.

WORKPLACE ORGANISATION

Shop stewards must be elected at mass meetings held in the workplace, in company time if possible. They should hold regular report-back meetings, also if possible in company time. Joint Shop Stewards' Committees should be set up on a plant, combine and international basis. Technical and clerical workers should also be represented on these committees.

Despite the general need for unity, there will be cases where shop stewards disagree strongly with the majority of the stewards' committee and want to put their minority views to the membership. They should have the right to do so, after notifying the committee of their intention, so long as they also make it clear to the membership waht the stewards' majority view is.

Union branches should have the right to meet at the workplace and in work time if possible. If not, creche facilities must be provided to ensure women workers can attend. Labour Party workplace branches should be set up with all the rights of ordinary ward branches.

CLOSED SHOP

We must campaign: for 100% trade unionism; for the right of trade unionists to enforce closed shops; for the right of trade unionists to discipline fellow workers to scab or flout democratic decisions; against the check-off system; and against employer-policed 'agency shops'.

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Full equality for women in the trade unions. Equal contributions and equal rights. Positive discrimination to ensure real equality. Support for the right to form women's caucuses.

BLACK AND IMMIGRANT WORKERS

No discrimination against black or immigrant workers in the unions (including in social clubs). Positive discrimination to ensure real equality. Support for the right to form black caucuses.

Campaigns to recruit immigrant workers to trade unions (using leaflets in the immigrants' own language).

A purge of open racists from all positions in the labour movement. Expulsion of fascist activists from the unions.

A vigorous and sustained trade union fight against racist and sexist job discrimination. Automatic endorsement of all strikes against discrimination.

YOUTH

Full trade union rights for young workers, including the right to strike. Formation of youth committees.

THE UNEMPLOYED

Unionisation of the unemployed, with full rights within the unions.

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Right of members to criticise union policy; to meet unofficially and visit other branches; to write, circulate and/or sell political literature. Right of appeal direct to union Appeals Court.

All education or other special qualifications for union office to be abolished. No member to be disqualified from holding union office on political grounds, other than fascist or racist activity.

RIGHTS OF BRANCHES AND DISTRICT COMMITTEES

Defend the rights of trade union branches and district committees against the central union bureaucracy. For the right of branches or district committees to take or approve industrial action.

DEVELOPING SOLIDARITY

Develop links between unions. Expand trades councils to include representation from the unemployed, tenants and students, and, most important, direct representation from factory committees and other shop floor organisations.

Affiliate trade unions to the Labour Party and local union branches to the local CLPs. TUC and Labour Party conference delegations should be bound to follow union policy where it exists. There should be democratic control of the block vote cast at Labour Party conference: delegations should be elected and consist of lay members. Members of all working class parties and tendencies should be eligible for inclusion in the delegation.

Trade union branch delegates to Trades Councils and Labour Parties must report back regularly.

BREAKING COLLABORATION

Trade unions should fight for full independence from the state. Total non-cooperation with the Tebbit Law and the Employment Act: state money for postal ballots should be rejected.

The National Economic Development Council and all the other governmental and industrial 'participation' bodies should be opposed and boycotted. Trade unionists must be answerable to the membership, not to joint committees with the bosses.

No interference by the bosses' courts in the internal affairs of the labour movement. Even when an appeal to the courts is motivated by a desire to thwart the right wing bureaucrats, it runs counter to the principles of working class democracy.