As reported elsewhere Programme of Work the key area of campaigning for Trades Union Councils during 2015-2016 will be to oppose the Tory Trade Union Bill currently being debated in Parliament.

This post is one in a series of posts that is aimed at keeping trade unionists informed  of where we are with the campaign opposing this attack on workers.

Bristol Trades Union Council have recently reported on the debate at the 2015 TUC conference Kill the Trade Union Bill and are supporting the National Demonstration at the Tory Party Conference on Sunday 4th October 2015 End Austerity Now which is calling for the protection of trade union rights.

We urge readers to continue below in reading what’s been happening in and around the 2015 Labour Party Conference in opposition to the Tory Trade Union Bill.

Labour’s annual conference affirmed that the party should legislate to allow workers to take action in solidarity with disputes outside their workplace, which is currently illegal under Thatcher-era anti-union laws.

In an address Conference UNITE general secretary Len McCluskey vowed to defy the restrictions if the Trade Union Bill was passed into law and said

“I will not be wearing an armband with a red triangle like trade union prisoners
“Remember, that’s what the nazis did to trade unionists in the concentration camps of Dachau — [forcing trade unionists to] wear armbands with red triangles.”

A full report, from the Morning Star, on the Trade Union Bill debate at conference can be found here Labour Party conference: New picket rules like ‘what the nazis did’

Angela Eagle Labour MP for Wallasey, shadow first secretary of state and shadow secretary of state for business innovation and skills wrote an article for the Morning Star in which she described the bill as “a divisive piece of legislation which undermines the basic protections that trade unions provide for people at work” and concluded that “These draconian measures must be stopped and Labour is united in opposing them.”. The full text of the article can be found here We will fight the Tory attack on working people