SDP's plan to clobber the unions

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THE Social Democratic Party is bidding to outdo the Tories as the unionbashing party.

Draft policies published last week by the SDP commit it to supporting almost all the Tory legislation against 'secondary' pickets and solidarity action -and to a lot more.

The SDP would make strikes in many public services illegal unless the dispute had first gone to arbitration. It would also make a criminal offence of industrial action in breach of a procedure agreement.

A postal ballot on strike action would be compulsory if one thousand union members demanded it. And postal ballots would also be imposed for election of union executives and general secretaries, and (every five years) to decide on unions' political affiliation.

The postal ballot is featured by the SDP as a democratic device. In truth it is the opposite.

The structure of branches and committees offers some possibility for democracy in the unions -i.e. for real control by the membership, based on collective discussion. general secretaries and executives can appeal to postal ballots of inactive members against that structure, then democracy is weakened.

Look at the AUEW -where top leaders elected by postal ballot have ridden roughshod over one of the most democratic district committee structures in the Labour movement.

Moreover, the unions to Jim Denham. secrerRoad. Birmingram 29 are not debating societies existing in a vacuum. They live in a bitterly hostile - capitalist - environment. To make possible control by the members rather than by the ruling powers of capitalism (and their press and media), the unions need to have safeguards.

To have votes taken in situations where union members can listen to each other, rather than to the louder voices of the trade union movement's enemies, is such a safeguard.

No one should idealise poorly attended union branch meetings or heavily stage-managed factory mass meetings, or be complacent about the need THE DISCIPLINING of a Basingstoke postman for stopping work at 9.30am has led to speculation that the Post Office may launch further attacks on its workforce in an attempt to save money.

There is a national agreement in force that postmen have a right to stop delivering letters at 9.30am. Basingstoke post office management tried last week unilaterally to break that agreement.

It sounds very reasonable, doesn't it: why should a post worker stop at 9.30 if s/he's only got a few more letters to deliver? (Just like flexible rostering for train drivers, you might say). But it is the thin end of the wedge for demanding that postmen stay out delivering until 10am or 11am. What better way to make the postmen speed up their rounds, and get more letters delivered by fewer postmen?

But management had reckoned without the strength of the workforce.

Over the past two years had brant officers hate acade sure dat membes ITE SEE BESEE I al IT ME IS TIT* to make union structures more open and democratic. But SDP-imposed postal ballots are the last thing likely to improve democracy.

Other SDP proposals aim to weaken the Labour Party and the unions themselves. Pre-entry closed shops would be unlawful; and trade unionists would have to opt into the political levy rather than (as at present) paying the levy unless they opt out.

The SDP working group that produced the anti-union proposals included, by the way, Sue Slipman, who joined the SDP when it was set up straight from the CP (and saying that she had not substantially changed her politics in making the party shift). more workers the union.

So when UCW branch officer Alan Fraser went in to work on Saturday morning, he found some 70 workers already demanding an immediate meeting. A proposal from the floor for an immediate withdrawal of labour was accepted, and the entire postal section (deliverers, sorters, etc.) walked out.

This swift action made management back down on their attempt to break the national agreement, and the victorious post workers were back at work on Monday.

But this attack on conditions is unlikely to have been just an idea in the head of one postal section management team. It has very probably come from regional level at least. If management elsewhere try this trick, postal workers must be ready for them.

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