We offer the wording below as a basis for motions for Labour conference 2023. The deadline for receipt of motions is 5pm, Thursday 21 September (conference Sunday 8 to Wednesday 11 October 2023), but some CLPs will decide their motions much earlier. Motions must be 250 words or less, and motion titles ten words or less.
The New Deal for Workers and the right to strike
Conference condemns the Tories’ drive to further restrict workers’ rights to strike and organise, including through the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill and the Public Order Bill.
This adds to what are already among the most restrictive anti-strike laws outside authoritarian regimes: by leagues the most restrictive in Western Europe. Existing laws prevent industrial action in solidarity with other workers and in direct pursuit of political demands about how our industries and society are run – while severely hindering all industrial action.
Conference welcomes commitments to repeal the MSL Bill, as well as commitments in the “New Deal for Workers” to expand union rights. However we underline repeated conference policy for abolition of all laws aimed against the right to strike. The next Labour government must act on this and repeal them all.
Conference resolves:
1. To reaffirm Labour’s opposition to all laws introduced to limit rights to organise and strike
2. To urge CLPs to work with unions to campaign against anti-union laws
3. When next in government, Labour should repeal all anti-union and anti-strike laws (including the Public Order Bill) and replace them with positive legal workers’ rights, including rights:
– to strike freely by procedures, at times (without notice periods) and for demands of workers’ own choosing;
– for unions to determine their own decision-making procedures, including but not only through electronic and workplace voting;
– to picket any workplace freely;
– to strike in solidarity with other workers;
– to strike over any issue, including political issues.
(250 words not inc title)