A government elected to absolute power by 23% of those entitled to vote, legislates that just to go on strike will require the support of 40% of those entitled to vote.
Update
I find further explanation is necessary. The government proposal is that not only must a majority of those voting cast their ballot in favour of a strike (which is democracy), but in addition that the number voting for the strike must also amount to 40% of those who were eligible to vote. Yet we have no such provision in a general election, where not only did the government get only 37% of those who did vote, it received under a quarter of the votes of those who were eligible to vote. the government is asking for a high
The right to withdraw your labour is the difference between a free man and a slave. Anybody who believes that the British economy has a problem with too many workers’ rights is very far right indeed. The gap between rich and poor had expanded massively in both private and public sectors, as the gap between workers’ pay and bosses’ pay grows ever wider.
In fact the first focus of the Tory government is on removing rights that protect ordinary people from their betters, be they human rights or employment rights.
I usually just lurk on here but can’t let this go.
Craig, you usually talk a lot of sense but this is just b*ll*cks.
For one thing, much as I loathe them the Tories don’t have absolute power or anything close to it. Hyperbole is always the sign of a weak argument.
Secondly, the turnout at the General Election was 66%.
Thirdly, if it had been an either / or election with only two choices the Tories would almost certainly have won with a clear majority.
Thirdly, as others have pointed out, a strike ballot has almost no read-over to electoral politics.
C– on this one, Craig.
Ref today’s much vaunted drop in unemployment.
Feb 2015
Almost 700,000 people in UK have zero-hours contract as main job
Figures show staff deals with no guaranteed hours have risen 26% since last year with number of such contracts jumping from 1.4m in 2013 to 1.8m
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/25/zero-hours-contract-rise-staff-figures
Dec 2014
Low pay and zero-hours contracts rise dramatically, figures show
TUC report shows one in 12 in labour force now in ‘precarious employment’, huge rise since 2008
• Special report: why can’t Britain create good jobs?
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/13/zero-hours-contracts-low-pay-figures-rise
What elections? You are pushing the mim. There are no elections, the process of presenting a selected candidate, who is then selected by a minority who have not yet understood, the process of “democracy brand” is a shambles. Furthermore why is comparison of apples and oranges, used to prove the point of “democracy brand”?
The other seventy seven percent (77 percent) are irrelevant as per your grand universal bolloxology? If people reject the process and it is interpreted as;”don’t bother” which is then concluded they don’t deserve to be counted!
Seeing as you have discounted the 77 percent then to sit there and represent the other twenty three percent ought to come naturally, hence your obtuse and ill thought out stupid proposition holds!
Heil Abe Rene click of the mouse button! Did i raise my had high enough there?
=====
when communists did this sort of trick they were called “totalitarian bastards”
What utter shite from an anarchist? “democratic mandate” I am literally pissing myself laughing, mandate and a democratic one at that! The language of charlatans, crooks and lairs used by a self styled anarchist, hehhehheeehee
This is nothing about going on strike, and the last time I was called to do so, I was one of a very few who actually worked…cos I knew I was going to lose my job regardless, and to not work would have cost me an awful lot of money…
This is far more important…
The Blindness of the European Union in the Face of US Military Strategy
by Thierry Meyssan
EU officials are completely wrong regarding Islamist attacks in Europe and the migration to the Union of people fleeing wars. Thierry Meyssan shows here that all this is not the accidental consequence of conflict in the broader Middle East and Africa, but a strategic objective of the United States….
http://www.voltairenet.org/article187529.html
Craig.
I heard, rightly or wrongly, that Public employees who wished to strike had to have a 51% majority for their strike to be legal.
@ Fedup
When were you ever invited to vote for feminism?
If you were, what reason did you vote to move from 1st wave, to 2nd wave, and then to 3rd wave feminism?
“Followed by Theresa and her ‘extremism’ crackdown. Go to Israel Theresa to see ‘extremism’ in action against the Palestinians.”
Friends of Israel are the unconditional kind. I wish these bastards would go there and stay there.
“I, and many other men, have been taking it on the stiff upper lip for years. We can handle austerity in a way that pampered socialist cannot.”
You really are a moron aren’t you?
With a double first in physics and chemistry, I’m as thick as they come.
🙂
@ spinning uncontrollably
What is this vote fetish about?
You simply cannot comprehend that to fight for one’s “rights” is a human right, a given, a god given, a simple fact, a universal tenet. No tosspot can force a vote on it.
What you conflate in an addled fashion, is Soros and the plethora of foundations supported by that venal corrupt bastard and his cohorts; pushing acceptable “political pornography” for the sake of a minority of deviants whose misandry can be hardly disguised.
“I’m as thick as they come.”
I couldn’t agree more.
There’s no problem withdrawing your labour – you quit the job. Strikers should be sacked.
“I, and many other men, have been taking it on the stiff upper lip for years. We can handle austerity in a way that pampered socialist cannot.”
“You really are a moron aren’t you?”
Two minutes under four hours. That didn’t take long.
“What you conflate in an addled fashion, is Soros and the plethora of foundations supported by that venal corrupt bastard and his cohorts; pushing acceptable “political pornography” for the sake of a minority of deviants whose misandry can be hardly disguised.”
Indeed, Soros got exposed. This doesn’t mean that all other forms of ‘feminism’ are the spontaneous will of women; it means that the controllers of the other forms of feminism, haven’t been exposed yet.
Daniel
If you are so certain Jimmy is so wrong why not tackle the subject instead of calling him a moron? Or let Fedup do it.
I, and many other men, have been taking it on the stiff upper lip for years. We can handle austerity in a way that pampered socialist cannot.
You and me both, anenterostomy boi (I’m nominally a socialist but definitely unpampered). Difference is, you seem to think it’s the right of the rich to rip you off. That seems pretty gutless to me…
John D Monkey,
The point is that the government wish to employ a qualified majority to validate strike action. Which means that not just half of those voting, but 40% of all those qualified to vote must vote a certain way. We have no such provision for general elections, where not only did the Tories not get half of all votes cast, they got under a quarter of the votes of those eligible to vote.
I am fascinated to know what check there are on executive power in the Westminster system.
Robert Crawford
currently you have to have 50%+1 of those voting, which is fair enough. But the proposal is that you will also have to have 40% of those entitled to vote, not those who do vote, as well.
Excellent opportunity for Holyrood to exercise its responsible sovereignty, and kick Cameron in the balls, by enacting ILO Conventions 87 and 98 into Scottish law.
@Heil Abe Rene click of the mouse button! Did i raise my had high enough there?
Not high enough. You should have fallen over backwards. 🙂
In fact I hadn’t taken a stand on what, if any restrictions there should be on striking. Certain professions aren’t allowed to strike at all, but no one is a slave, in that anyone can leave a job if they want. The government will probably succeed in getting their legislation through – it doesn’t affect the RMT vote.
My point was that, even when a strike is legal, it is not a good idea if it causes the public to lose sympathy for the people doing it. I will be happy if the RMT union and the managers succeed in making a deal and the strike is called off.
With a double first in physics and chemistry, I’m as thick as they come.
Didn’t take much to get you to pull rank, did it? Though a 2.2 in PPE would actually be more relevant to this particular debate, wouldn’t it?
“where not only did the Tories not get half of all votes cast, they got under a quarter of the votes of those eligible to vote.” – Does it matter? The rules of the game were clearly spelt out, were they not?
@ Ba’al Zevul
I was provoked.
@ Ba’al Zevul
… And, what debate?
The boss of the delivery firm that employed the two Europeans who delivered a heavy item this morning takes home £4million plus plus. They did not mind telling me that they are on zero hours and they were from Baltic states.
The boss of the company who supplied the item takes home a similar amount.
I was provoked.
Granted.
… And, what debate?
I believe the general discussion was about the right to strike and the conditions attaching thereto, rather than organometallic complexes or supersymmetry. But I’ve been meaning to ask, are you by any chance a committed Christian? Or a fundamentalist Muslim? Your choice of hate figures is strangely familiar.
Old Atheist.
Craig Ref your update.
…,the government is asking for a high….>>?
You are conflating the operatives whom are masquerading/masqueraded as “feminist” and are in fact a brand designed for measures of control, and to obfuscate, conflate and mislead the general population.
Feminist theory is founded upon the fighting against the oppression of the females, and equally males too. This is not a brand, fad, fashion. It is a reality that is getting pushed aside/discounted by the same bunch of venal and corrupt swine who are oppressing and busy erecting even more constructs of oppression.
Simply put you are blaming the wrong target demographic for the guilt of; “the controllers of the other forms….”. Stop blaming the oppressed and see that you can bring yourself to condemn the oppressors.
Once more the buzz words/mims abound; spontaneous (we are not debating Britain has talent audience reactions), and “will” …….. adding insult to injury by blaming the oppressed all the while letting the oppressor to have a free run at getting on with his/her oppressing.
Craig.
It has always bothered me that “non” votes count. Especially, in the first Referendum for Scottish Independence.