Tories act hesitantly to curb unions

Press, 21 February 1980, Page 7

Tories act hesitantly to curb unions

NZPA-Reuter London Britain’s Conservative Government, divided over how to handle trade unions, has unveiled complex proposals to mildly strengthen legislation aimed at curbing union power. The announcement by the Secretary for Employment (Mr James Prior) came amid mounting concern over violence on picket lines, and with no end in sight to the seven-week steelworkers’ strike.

A bill is already passing through Parliament to end some of the immunities unions have under British law. After weeks of debate inside the Cabinet, Mr Priori published a paper outlining; proposals to reinforce the; legislation. It covered changes in thei law which provides for so-;, called secondary industrial ' action by unions against firms not directly involved in disputes. In certain cases, firms will now be able to sue unions i for damage suffered by sec- : ondary industrial -action, 1 such as strikes and blacking. 1 “But only if that firm suffers breach of a commercial j contract,” Mr Prior stipu- , lated. The proposals appeared I unlikely to please Con- t

iservative Right-wingers who i want far tougher measures Ito stem secondary and sympathy strikes. The changes were immediately attacked as too cumbersome by the Labour Opposition. Its spokesman on industrial policy, Eric Yarley, said they would “give rise to a whole string of contentious and hard-fought legal cases which will even further damage industrial relations.” The Government later took further action to stem violence on picket lines. The A 11 o r n e y-General (Sir Michael Havers) read a statement to Parliament

•spelling out the criminal law on picketing. He also announced that • the Home Secretary (Mr William Whitelaw) would meet Britain’s police chiefs this week to discuss the problem. Sir Michael said strikers were not immune from court proceedings if they committed violence or intimidation on picket lines, but it was up to the police] to enforce the law. Last week the police! clashed with hundreds of pickets trying to stop workers entering private steel •plants in Sheffield. North • England, and several people [were injured.