Len McCluskey removes clause to say Unite members must remain within the law

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Unite removed a clause requiring its 1.5m members to remain within law
It's as response to Government’s pledge to curb militants’ right to strike
Len McCluskey says Unite members shouldn't have to obey 'unjust' rules

By Gerri Peev for the Daily Mail

Published: 20:46 EST, 12 July 2015 | Updated: 01:13 EST, 13 July 2015

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Militant union boss Len McCluskey has changed his organisation’s rules to allow activists to stage illegal strikes

Militant union boss Len McCluskey has changed his organisation’s rules to allow activists to stage illegal strikes.

Unite has removed a clause requiring its 1.5million members to remain within the law.

The extraordinary move is a riposte to the Government’s pledge to curb militants’ right to strike.

Mr McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, has amended the organisation’s constitution to say members should not be expected to obey ‘oppressive’ legislation.

He told activists: ‘Unite is not going to see itself rendered toothless by passively submitting to unjust laws.’

Speaking at the union’s rules conference, which discusses changes to regulations, he added: ‘If the Tories wish to put trade unionism beyond the law then so be it.

‘We are ready for the fight and we will, I believe, find allies among everyone who cares for freedom and democracy.’

Unite members approved removing the words ‘so far as may be lawful’ from the rules governing the union’s actions, according to The Times.

It was in response to the Government pledging to fast-track a law requiring unions to achieve a turnout in strike ballots of at least 50 per cent.

Ministers were incensed after last week’s strike on the London Underground over new night shift patterns.

First Great Western train staff also walked out in separate industrial action.

The Government is now speeding up the Trades Union Bill, following warnings that union leaders could call for a string of anti-austerity strikes later this year.

The bill, to be introduced on Wednesday, will impose minimum turnout thresholds on strike ballots that would have outlawed three-quarters of the strikes seen in recent years, and softened the impact of this week’s transport disputes. Essential services such as fire, transport, health and education will need 40 per cent of all those eligible to vote to back a strike before it can go ahead.

Mr McCluskey raised the threat of changing Unite rules earlier this year, before the election. He said the right to strike was already ‘hanging by a thread’ as a result of reforms by the Coalition.

His latest intervention will put pressure on Labour leadership contenders to say whether they approve of illegal strikes.

Unite's Len McCluskey on Labour's Blairite 'grandees'

Unite has removed a clause requiring its 1.5million members to remain within the law in a riposte to the Government’s pledge to curb militants’ right to strike (file picture of Unite union members protesting outside Houses of Parliament)

Those who express their disapproval will risk alienating the 50,000 Unite members registered to vote in the contest. In a speech to lawyers in March, Mr McCluskey said: ‘We have to ask ourselves the question, can we any longer make that commitment to, under any and all circumstances, stick within the law as it stands?

‘It is no exaggeration to say that the right to strike in this – the first country of free trade unionism – was and is hanging by a thread.’

At the time Tory MP Dominic Raab, who has since been made a justice minister, described the comments as ‘shocking’.