Leverage campaigning in the UK and the Trade Union Act 2016

K Law (General)

Macleod, Mairin ; Dukes, Ruth

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Law

关键词: Trade Union Act 2016, trade unions, protest, leverage campaigning, leverage, industrial action, lawful, comprehensive campaigns, US, UK, labour law.;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/78982/1/2020MacleodLLMR.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

This thesis analyses the legal changes to the pre-strike ballot and picketing provisions contained in the Trade Union Act 2016 (TUA). Firstly, it seeks to understand the provisions as responses to trade unions’ uses of so-called ‘leverage’ tactics, especially during the Grangemouth industrial dispute of 2013.1 Secondly, it seeks to understand them as the most recent episode in the history of the ‘golden formula’2 for determining the lawfulness of industrial action with reference to its purpose of furthering a trade dispute.3 The main research question the thesis asks is this: can the TUA, and the policy to which it was pursuant, rightly be understood as a response to leverage campaigns and what does this imply for industrial action, and labour’s capacity to exercise its right to protest? Having traced the development of the provisions of the TUA – from the Carr Review4 and the Conservative Party’s 2015 General Election manifesto, throughout the consultation and parliamentary processes, to the enacted legislation – the thesis then assesses the provisions in the context of the leverage campaign strategy and tactics, drawing here on a comparison with similar developments in the US. The conclusion is drawn that the TUA should be understood as a response to leverage campaigns because it brings unions’ protest activity within the scope of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. A comparison of UK and US case law supports the additional conclusion that it is increasingly difficult for unions in this country to protest lawfully in the context of a trade dispute.