History is littered with examples of the judiciary almost arbitrarily ruling against trade unions. Taff Vale and the Astbury Judgement during the General Strike are two of the numerous examples. To that list can be added the High Court’s judgement against Unite on Monday.
This is not about the rights or wrongs of the BA strike (undoubtedly BA has to modernise in a changing global aviation industry). This is about whether workers have a legitimate right to withhold their labour, following a ballot. Any pluralist democracy should recognise the right for workers to organise and the right for workers to strike. If workers vote to withdraw their labour, then that right should be respected.
That is clearly not what the British judiciary think. They declared the BA strike illegal on the flimsiest of grounds and the most minor technicality. An act of judicial activism made all the more astonishing given that 80% of voting staff had voted for a strike on an 80% turnout (not an easy decision to make given the loss of earnings involved).
It is yet another reminder that an increasingly active judiciary is playing more and more of a role in the public policy process. And it is worth reminding ourselves that the judiciary is probably the most unrepresentative of all the professions. The judiciary come from a shockingly small sample of society – some 85% of senior judges were educated in public schools. We should be asking ourselves whether such an unrepresentative, unaccountable body should be playing such a political role.
The role of the judiciary should be to uphold the law rather than make it. The role of the judiciary should, in the field of industrial relations, be to be a neutral arbiter between business and unions. At the moment, it seems that the judiciary is heavily slanted against trade unions – neutralising the power of the ballot. Whatever you think of trade unions or this particular strike, the right to strike after a ballot should surely be respected.
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Here, here. It just feels wrong that ‘technicalities’ can stop a freely decided outcome. The right to strike is a right anyone in a free society should have. It shouldn’t be an easy option, a proper ballot of the workers should be organised and those who choose to break the picket line and work shouldn’t be intimidated. But those want to withhold their labour must be free to do so.
I agree – it’s the job of politicians to make law, not judges. The fact is that BA is headed for a collapse due to its outdated practices. A strike will only hasten this – but ex-strikers might find it difficult to get jobs on other carriers in the industry.