Posted by Keith Ewing

Labour & social democrat MEPs back a shabby compromise on TTIP

No TTIPThe Socialist and Democratic group of MEPs (which includes UK Labour) have agreed to a “shabby compromise” supporting TTIP, leaving all the most unjust elements of the deal intact say Professor Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the secret trade deal currently being negotiated between the EU and the US. Its text is a closely guarded secret shared only by the negotiators, including representatives of multinational corporations.

Drafts are withheld from both MEPs and members of all the European national parliaments, as well as US Congress and Senate members. Continue reading →

What trade unions can do in spite of the “Gagging Act”

crossed tapeMany readers will recall the great controversy that was provoked by the clumsily entitled Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning etc Act 2013 at the time it was passed. It is clear its purpose was to clear the pitch for the Tories, to allow them to dominate the election with their city-fuelled war chest.

Opponents – especially on the left – were to be gagged. So the Act introduces new controls on trade unions and other groups. If a union wants to spend more than £20,000 in the election in England (or £10,000 in Scotland or Wales), it must comply with more detailed and onerous disclosure and reporting rules. Continue reading →

Australian “Gagging Law” thrown out by High Court

crossed tapeAs the Transparency of Lobbying Bill – the more appropriately named Gagging Bill – continues its passage through the UK Parliament, Keith Ewing highlights how similar proposals introduced in New South Wales, Australia, have been overturned by its High Court. In an IER Briefing late last year, Keith commented on the human rights implications of the UK gagging law. Here he joins Tim Ayres, General Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), in exposing the undemocratic, anti union nature of the successfully challenged Australian legislation. 

December’s very public evisceration of New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell’s highly repressive political party funding legislation is a remarkable event in Australian law. The High Court’s decision is also of great global significance, with implications that will reverberate far beyond Australia.

The decision is extraordinary not only because unions (unusually) won, but also because of the manner of the victory. Powerful and unequivocal to the point of impatience with the NSW government, the decision casts a strong challenge for policy-makers, who must now design a new non-partisan party funding law. Continue reading →

The future of collective bargaining

Collective bargainingWhen I started work in 1978, I entered what we now call a labour market, in which 82% or more British workers had their working conditions set by a collective agreement. In a working life of 35 years (and counting) that figure of 82% has fallen to less than 28%, and continues to fall.

This decline in collective bargaining coverage represents a crisis for British trade unionism and needs urgently to be addressed, if trade unionism is to survive as a credible force. Not only does it tell us that our voice is not being heard, but also that our impact is being diminished. We are reaching fewer and fewer people. Continue reading →

The serious threat to trade union freedom: in your parliament this week

lobbying harms the nation's heathLast week the TUC expressed serious concerns about the far – reaching consequences of the government’s Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill, due for a second reading next week.

Such concern is hardly surprising, for this is a Bill that not only represents a threat to basic liberties generally, but to trade union freedom specifically.   So much for the Illiberal Democrats, who promised that they would be the guardians of freedom when in government. Continue reading →