Page 2 - Minimum Service News Today

The working-class movement is on an uphill journey. The latest official (Certification Officer) statistics on union membership, published 6 July, are thankfully out of date, but sobering. Between December 2019 and December 2020, union membership rose a bit. Between December 2020 and December 2021, it fell a bit, despite lockdowns and work-from-home beginning to fade.

Teachers in the National Education Union (NEU) struck again in England on 5 and 7 July,

The Minimum Service Levels Bill, which will soon become law, will force some public services - including the rail network - to always maintain a basic service even on strike days.

The Minimum Service Bill, reaffirmed by the House of Commons on 22 May, says “an employer may give a work notice to a trade union in relation to any strike...” Does the use of the word “may”, rather than “will” or “must”, mean that employers could choose not to issue work notices? If so, there is surely scope for targeted campaigns focusing on, for example, Labour councils and Labour-controlled transport authorities not to issue work notices.

The government is under attack from the Tory right wing for being too “soft” on immigration and on Brexit. Probably the critics are setting out their stall for a Tory leadership contest after the next general election. The big fact for the labour movement is that this Tory government is already very right-wing even on the Tory scale, and feels itself under as much pressure from the further-right as from the labour movement and the left.

The government is under attack from the Tory right wing for being too “soft” on immigration and on Brexit. Probably the critics are setting out their stall for a Tory leadership contest after the next general election. The big fact for the labour movement is that this Tory government is already very right-wing even on the Tory scale, and feels itself under as much pressure from the further-right as from the labour movement and the left.

Through Labour’s National Policy Forum in July and the Labour Party conference, 8-11 October in Liverpool, Solidarity will be pressing for activists to organise in unions and local Labour Parties to call Keir Starmer to account. The Labour leaders’ draft programme, the National Policy Forum report released on 11 May, sets up two barriers against making reality of its bland and blurred talk of social advance.

From the Free Our Unions blog Fire Brigades Union leader Matt Wrack has called for a “mass movement of non-compliance” against the Minimum Service Legislation. That’s good. But as I understand the legislation, “non-compliance” begs the question. A union can refuse to enter into consultation about “minimum service” levels. Then, under the law, the levels are set by the government.

This letter to the editor is from Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely in answer to the Wightlink User Group

Lee Anderson. Suella Braverman. The Tories are likely to lose a general election in 2024, but their response is not to soften their line. On the contrary. They are rushing to push through as much as they can: Public Order Bill, Minimum Service law, EU regulations bonfire, Rwanda plan, block on Scotland’s gender-recognition law. They do that both because they want the measures through in the limited time they have, and to rally their political base.