Bare faced attack on democracy must be challenged

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The CWU has pledged to campaign within the wider Labour and trade union movement to ensure the next Labour government repeals the aptly-dubbed 'gagging bill' in its entirety.

Currently going through Parliament the 'Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill' will not only curtail the ability of organisations like the CWU to campaign on behalf of their memberships but also give the Government unprecedented access to union membership records.

At CWU Annual Conference delegates branded the legislation both dangerous and undemocratic - unanimously voting to commit the union to set in motion the next stage in the political fight back that will follow the Bill's now inevitable passage into law.

Tabling the demand for the CWU to be at the forefront of a campaign to ensure the next Labour Government reverses the legislation, John Humphries of London Postal Engineering hit out at a "pernicious piece of legislation" that he described as an "opportunist attack o trade unions, their members and anyone who has the gall to criticise some of the things that this Government is doing."

He continued: "It's called the 'gagging bill' for very obvious reasons, and it doesn't even tackle the issue that it is supposed to in terms of the furore over the actions of some lobbyists that threw that process into disrepute.

"It's one of the most damaging pieces of legislation as far as democracy goes than I have ever seen."

Seconding the motion, Alan Tate of London Regional Motor Transport branch added: "This whole Bill is a brutal attack on free speech and the ability of any group to be able to campaign. It utterly destroys any argument that Cameron and crew want to see the 'Big Society. The Bill is a mess and it needs to be stopped which is why, on April 3 this year, the Shadow Leader of the House, Angela Eagle, announced that a Labour government will scrap David Cameron's 'gagging law' and support freedom of speech in Britain as well as our right to campaign."

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Senior deputy general secretary Tony Kearns stressed it was important for the trade union movement to campaign to ensure the Labour party does what it says with regards to the repeal of legislation which could, in theory, be used to prevent trade unions communicating with their members.

Tony explained: "The Government says it is not satisfied that trade unions keep adequate membership records and are now going to be appointing a 'compliance officer' to come in and investigate TU records. The law goes on to state that if they are not satisfied that we are keeping accurate records, either centrally or locally, that they can impose penalties on what we can do with our membership records.

"One of the things the Government said when it was proposing the Bill was that it thinks trade unions are either not communicating with all their members, by not keeping accurate records, or communicating with people who are not actually trade union members.

"It follows that, if they think we are not keeping accurate records, that one of the penalties they can impose is to stop us contacting our members through our membership data base until such a time as they are satisfied that we are keeping accurate records!"

Tony pointed out that the CWU has already taken a leading role in challenging the Bill - tabling an emergency motion to last September's TUC Congress and helping to draw up some of the amendments that went to Parliament but which were overruled because of the Government's majority.

Tony concluded: "We can't just sit and wait for a Labour government and then wait for that government to repeal this legislation - we have to take action now. As such, we are reviewing how our membership system operates, and how it interacts with branch membership lists, because it's clear within the law that, on any day, we have to be as accurate as possible or otherwise we will fall foul of the legislation."