TRADE UNION LAW

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 128, 3 June 1927, Page 3

TRADE UNION LAW

WHAT ENGLAND IS DOING

REVOKING CONCESSIONS

Two articles in the April "FortnightJy Review" make the point that legal concessions granted to trade unions within the lust fifty years have given them liberty of "action beyond the limits of the common law, and forecast the present Bill as an attempt to bring such action within the common law. Mr. John Raynes writes on "What is Trade Union Law!" and Sir Frank Fox, on "Trades Unions and the Law." The first articie is a brief, historical sketch. In 1325 Peel repealed the Combination Acts, which made illegal combinations to raise wages or alter working conditions. Special privileges were conferred on trade unions between 1871 and 1875. Then the unions were allowed to become incorporated, and to hold property they were- further protected from suits for damages arising out of aggressive industrial action of the normal kind. Peaceful picketing was allowed in 1875, the definition of conspiracy was limited, and violence and intimidation in trade disputes were to tie treated as in common law. The Taff Vale ease, in 1900, was a dranjatie crisis. It was then decided that a trade union was liable for damages caused by the action of its officers, a decision which coat the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants £42,000. The Liberal victory of 1900 led to the Trades Disputes Act. This swept away the Taff Vale decision, exempted the union from being sued for unlawful acts done by its members, and declared that "an inducement to break a contract of service is not actionable." It-declared also that an act done in concert should not be actionable if it would not have been actionable if done by a single person. This was welcomed as. a final charter of emancipation, but in 1908 Mr. W. V. Osborne, a member of the Associated Society of Railway Servants, gained a decision which prevented trade unions from using their funds for political purpose. Mr. Raynes says that after much restlessness, in 1913 came the Trade j Union Act, which authorised political I action by trade unions, provided that the objects were "statutory," a very important qualification in view of the days ahead, and that by ballot.vote a majority of members were in favour of I political action, and that any member who desired to contract out might do so. j Mr. Raynes thinks that there is need to preserve statutory limits to trade union action for the two purposes. Tho first is that of safeguarding investments and mutual benefits for millions of workmen. In England, last April, trades union reserves amounted to £12,I 500,000, and income to about £12,000,----000. The second is to restrain the possible actions of "extremists who are making desperate efforts within the unions to secure centralised control that is tantamount to dictatorship, and complete discipline- by tho organised mass." (It is necessary, ho thinks, that such logI islation should avoid expressing hostility or prejudice. Sir Frank Fox recalls that unionism in its early days in Britain and Australia was industrial, and not political. Unions made no attempt to interfere with their members' political views. Membership of the Political Labour Party was a separate matter. Ho places tho watershed at 1867, when the down-grade in industrial relations began. Then a go.od report by a Royal Commission ou industrial co-operation, was rejected. All modern legislation, in Sir Frank Fox's opinion, has been inspired by a. desire to discover how much wrongdoing should be allowed to unions in order to mako their bargaining powers equal to those of the employers. Tortuous acts, as long as they arc done in pursuance, of trades pursuits, are legalised by tho Act of 1905. Trade unions thus have, and freely use, a wide range of legalised powers which uro contrary to the common law of England, and to natural justice. They may libel, conspire, and beset in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute. They may force a minority of their members to heip to finance enterprises, of which those members disapprove. _ They may forco unwilling men to join their unions by denying them otherwise* the chance of employment. "It is a curious state of affairs to have grown up in a community which prides itself on having free institutions," says Sir Frank Fox, "and, apart from its injustice, it is a dangerous state of affairs, sinco trade unions are usod by domestic and foreign enemies of our social system as a means I fo dostroy that, system..'! Sir Frank Fox recommends tho encouragement of trade unions in their economic objects, anil the securing for thi-m of ii capital interest in tho undertakings with tho normal methods of settling disputes, and a supremo Arbitration Court representing the conscience of tho community.