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MINISTERS’ mad rush to curb trade union rights is completely at odds with the political priorities of the public, a new poll showed yesterday.
Independent research by Survation found that just 2 per cent of people ranked the Trade Union Bill among their top three priorities.
Yet the Bill was among the first to be tabled by the Tories after the general election and could clear the Commons after its third reading today.
Union Unite, which commissioned the survey, said the findings showed most people think the government is wasting “precious parliamentary time.”
Respondents were asked to rank 20 issues in total that they think MPs should be concerning themselves with.
The NHS came first and trade union legislation came last at 20th.
Only 11 per cent of people ranked trade union legislation as even a top-10 issue for the government.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “The Trade Union Bill has no popular support.
“It’s a disgrace that at a time when the NHS is creaking at the seams this government is wasting precious parliamentary time on a Bill that only benefits bosses who want to cut your pay, steal your pension or lay you off.”
The poll showed overwhelming support for the right to strike with 84 per cent saying they consider it a “fundamental right.”
And the results boosted calls for the introduction of workplace strike ballots to replace postal votes brought in by Thatcher.
Despite Tory braying, 71 per cent of people support the move back to greater workplace democracy.
Labour, the SNP and Plaid Cymru have tabled amendments that would allow ballots to be held in workplaces and online.
That would make it more likely that unions would meet the 50 per cent ballot turnout thresholds included in the Bill.
Scottish and Welsh nationalists have also tabled amendments calling for industrial relations legislation to be devolved, as it already has been to Northern Ireland.
Plaid’s Jonathan Edwards claimed: “Ultimately the only way to protect Welsh workers from these vicious assaults by the Tories is to move responsibility for employment law from Westminster to Wales.”
