Politics – Cameron Declares War on the Unions

Cameron Wants to “Curb” Union Ability to Strike

Cameron, playing to his core constituency (that is the one that lives in the 1950s), has pledged that, should he be PM after May this year, he will curb the power of unions to paralyse important public services.
Under his plan any strike proposal for health, transport, fir or educational services would need the backing of 40% of union members. At the moment all the union needs to call a strike is a simple majority of those that vote. Cameron has also said that there would need to be a minimum of a 50% turn out in a strike ballot. Cameron would also end a ban on using agency staff to cover for striking workers. He would also impose a three-month time limit after a ballot for action to take place and curbs on picketing.
For some inexplicable reason union leaders think that this is an affront on democracy. If 50% of the workers take part in a ballot then 80% of them would have to vote “yes”. What could be fairer?
If the purpose was to truly reflect the members’ feelings then why would the government veto any attempt to introduce secure online voting? This is one measure that would increase participation in ballots. The reason is that this is not about fairness. It is about Cameron playing to his constituency and about curbing union power. It is about being able to skew negotiations between the government and the unions. It is about reducing the unions’ ability to negotiate on a level playing field. Something that Cameron sees as being necessary if he is going to push through the eye watering cuts to public services that he wants in the next 5 years.
I think that Cameron is onto something here. It is only right that there should be a minimum level of support for anyone who can influence the core public services. After all, this is being proposed by a popularly elected government, except it isn’t. Cameron was elected with less than 40% of the popular vote. In fact, only 15 Tory MPs out of 303 secured the level of support that Cameron is demanding of the unions. Cameron had no shame in forming a government in 2010 with less than 40% support from the electorate.

Let’s face it The Boy David has no shame.

Tags: cameron, democracy, the unions, Tory Party