The_Right_to_Strike

"The Right To Strike" Yippee! Workforce Modernisation, just what every prison worker needs. Now it is voted out, what next' Well, we have huffed and puffed about taking action if the service attempts to force any part of WFM in and so we must ballot the membership to take industrial action if they dare try it on. Can we take action legally though' Of course, the lawyers, service and government may say we cannot, but I beg to differ. Eventually when 'due process' has taken place (you may ask when will that be' but I couldn't possibly comment), we may once again have our basic union rights back in law. However, let us consider though, how we ended up being one of the most persecuted of workers in terms of our union rights. The POA was formed in 1939. This followed the removal of trade union rights from the Police and Prison Officers Union after its strike of 1919. From 1939 until 1993, the POA enjoyed full trade union rights, including the right to take industrial action. Having said that, Prison Officers very rarely took any form of industrial action and indeed strike action with regard to pay has never been taken. In the early '90s, following severe problems with overcrowding of prisons and the resulting terrible conditions caused for both staff and prisoners, the POA determined that it would not accept prisoners into the two most overcrowded prisons in Europe - Preston and Hull. In response to this action the Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard took the POA to court and was able to convince our learned friends that the POA was not and never had been a trade union, categorising us as soldiers, police officers and civil servants. Having the "powers of a constable" when arresting escaping prisoners, it seems, was enough to debar us from any legitimate trade union rights, thus effectively negating any recourse to strike or industrial action. Of course, we and the opposition Labour Party Home Affairs spokesman rightly condemned the government. I wonder whatever happened to that young, dynamic and thrusting Labour Home Affairs spokesman. Guessed who it was yet' Of course our bestest mate Tony 'it weren't me guv' Blair. Of course Blair and his mates made it clear they would return full trade union rights to the POA when they came to government and that it was unacceptable for Prison Officers or union members to be criminalized for taking industrial action. Well it's taken them eleven odd years to do nothing, so I suppose another year or so will make no difference, will it' So yes we have been persecuted, maligned and treated as industrial slaves and better sooner, rather than later that it stopped. A workforce that cannot legally withdraw its labour at will is either oppressed or enslaved. Free people can and must have the right to strike and to support others who exercise it. The textbook definition of a strike would be along the lines of "a collective withholding of labour services by workers who do not like the pay and benefits package an employer offers." Okay, but what about the 'right to strike'. In the absence of a contractual agreement to the contrary, any employee must have the right to withhold his services from an employer and if each individual has this right, then it follows that a group of like-minded individuals can exercise this right together. In other words, all individuals can organise to exercise their rights together to withhold labour at the same time and if this concerted action induces an employer to acquiesce to their demands, then so be it. It can also be argued that it is only a basic worker right that the contract of employment should be suspended for the duration of any action. In this way, a striker cannot be deemed to have broken that contract by striking and, therefore, may not be penalised. The "right to strike" therefore, must be classed as a basic union, worker and indeed human right of the Prison Officer. Therefore, we already possess the right to take industrial action and despite what acts of parliament the government force on us, they were not negotiated and we never agreed to them. We can and must protect our position as independent free-minded workers and not be shackled with the chains of the industrial slave. So if needs must, if the service and government try to force through changes that will prove to be detrimental to the public we serve, by making our prisons ever more unsafe, undisciplined, insecure and dangerous places to hold dangerous people, then the choice, must be made whether to ballot for action. Andy Darken Branch Chairman – Latchmere House