A Start

.
London’s Mayor, Boris Johnson, has asked the Prime Minister to consider bringing in a law requiring a minimum 50% participation in a strike ballot by union members which, he feels, will bring an end to the sort of expensive and disruptive strikes which have once again brought London to a standstill.

Whether or not you feel, as he does, that the latest strike by tube workers is a ‘nakedly political gesture’, it can’t be right that just a simple majority of members actually voting as presently provided by law can cause so much disruption. Something needs to give somewhere.

The CBI, who pointed out that only 33% of tube staff actually bothered to vote, would like new legislation to be introduced requiring 40% of balloted union members to be in favour of a strike.

At least that would be a start.
.

How Sensible

.
The independent think tank, The Policy Exchange, has come up with a suggestion that would make it tougher for unions to call strike action.

They suggest that 40% of union members should be required to vote for a strike in order for it to be valid, rather than a simple majority of voting union members as at present. They also suggest that employers should be allowed to use agency staff to cover strike action, and for the period of protection from dismissal during a strike to be reduced from twelve weeks to eight weeks.

Unsurprisingly, the CBI welcomed the report and the TUC claimed it was ‘a crude attack on workplace rights’.

To me at any rate, the think tank’s suggestions seem eminently sensible and, had they been in force now, the strikes by sections of BAs cabin staff and that of Tube workers would not have taken place.
.