Rightsat Work by Jeremy McMullen £2.25 pbk and £12 hbk.
HAT. DO trade union activists need from a book about legal rights at work? First, an explanation of how and according to what principles the law works. Secondly, a book organised according to the problems they face as trade unionists, so that confronted with a probiem over, say, maternity leave, you can find the information •you wants Talentaway.
Perhaps most importantly, since few books have done this, you need a book that explains how best to use what legal rights exist a book written from an active trade union viewpoint.
Jeremy McMullen's book achieves all three, and a bit more besides.
workers. and active trade unionists, know little about their legal The introduction points this out most strikingly by referring to the Grunwick dispute *Look what happened to the rights THOUSI they had Grunwick: 1. You have the right to La union but members of APEX and the T&GWU were sacked without compensation when they did so. 2. You have th right to withdraw your labour - but if all strikers are sacked, none can claim unfair dismissal.
YOU ask ACAS recommend recognition - but ACAS has no power to demand co-operation employer. ACAS recommend recognition - but it isn't legally binding on employers. S. You have the right to picket - but this does not override police powers to arrest you for obstruction and other minor offences, or allow you to stop argues that limitations of the law are to be found malue areas. concerned only with individual, not corecave le. waac union HEaLs Under the law, a contract employment is seen as a mutually acceptable agreement between individual worker and employer who have equal bargaining power. practice any worker applying for a especially today's conditions of mass unemployment, has to accept the employer's terms.
The result is that unions can't bring a tribunal claim over, or examoe. equal pay; each individual worker must make a clam based on her contract. Workers have many rights not the same as getting it enforced. In addition, the law is stacked against And finally, the law constantly changing: legal rights once won are liable to be taken away.
So what conclusion does McMullen to? 'Union organisation, collective bargaining and industrial action are the preconditions individual rights. Putting it simply -don't sue, organise."
Why write a book about rights at you might The most answer is that organised workers mav often have to use the law in the absence of strong organisation to defend them. But while well-organised workers may be able to avoid relying on the law, they cannot afford to ignore it McMullen puts forward guidelines:
*Organisation, negotiation action are more effective than legal *While pursuing collective action, don't ignore the possibility of legal action at any time. *Often the threat of legal action can be a tactical advantage in negotiations. *Use the cases in this handbook to preven your boss taking unilateral action which somas ane colas navesalt Working of the law. The different Rights Work explains types of law and who enforces them is all there, with diagrams to make it all clearer. The second part of the book the contract of employment, through to equal pay, maternity discrimination. The third section, on union rights, informaton which you need to be aware of in order to effectively use collective action to defend your legal rights.
Is striking a breach of contract? Can strikers be sacked comeback? Does dhat are you legal theate occupations? All these are answered So careful has the author been to see that any union activist or worker can use the information in this book that it contains a glossary of lega terms, a list of useful addresses, a lis of further reading. and even copies ol forms you will have to fill in to claim your nguis In short, this is just the sort of handbook that every union branch. shop stewards committee, and active trade union militant needs a copy of. See that your union branch gets one RICH PALSER until The Poverty of Theory by E.P. Thompson Merlin Press. £3.95 T IS hardly necessary can The English Working Class, William Morris, Whigs and Hunters advertis and commend themselves far better What is however, is Thompson's coherence as a theorist. His the collary "political theorist" firmly rejected. The publication of leave and a goldmine of British tradition with no make any threats preoccupations research is integrate material he has But on central strategy researct on central issues greatness the it must be studica to urge people to read E.P. helped Thompson. The Making of consulsics ensue generally not realised, JOHN ROSS disclaimer to the *I do not have gifts as a must to of the Peculiarities of the WRP, the of the institute of and the early Communist Party are seriously downplayed. Engels' poli tics are severelv denounced Kendall actually argues in The Revolutionary Movement in Britain 1900-21 that the formation of the CP was an unmitigated disaster, as l blocked the development of a healthy The British working class, in its majority, has never confronted the political rule of the bourgeois state To prove that it is aevanecd. -Ont therefore has to hold up its actual ConccHuall attention on these. This approach has clear strengths as tar as historical concerned Thompson's account of the English working class exudes power precisely because, as a brilliant historian, Thompson can the wealth uncovered in a masterly historical survey political approach Thompson's method leaves a lot to be desired. For it avoids concentration qusHons political and focuses minute THECECSLILIS, but When appropriated by "theoreticians' of left groups, whoutllise Thompson's framework, but lack his as a historian, all that emerges is a caricatured insularity Thompson's political project leads workers movement to focus exclusively on itself. It should be doing the exact opposite Should we buy this book? Yes, a hundred times yes. It should be read by every socialist. It is a coherent presentation of a wrong strategy, but Thompson's historical work has transform our entire working Cas. history. It permits a serious debate to The precondition for disagreeing with Thompson is a meticulous study of what he writes. Ignorance , after all, is the biggest enemy of advance.