Solidarity will have to be legalised - Tony Woodley, T&G (UK) General Secretary
Solidarity is the best way to level the industrial relations playing field, heavily tilted as it is in favour of employers against workers.
That is a clear lesson to be learned from last week's disruption at Heathrow Airport.
The action taken by British Airways employees in support of the workers sacked by the Gate Gourmet catering firm was unlawful, and was repudiated by the T&G.
Everyone must regret the misery caused to many passengers - but the buck for the disruption firmly stops with Gate Gourmet's managers, whose cynical plot to get rid of their workforce provoked this confrontation.
I sympathise with the view attributed to one member of the travelling public that it is better to have a disrupted holiday than to be summarily sacked.
The question that needs to be addressed is - why should solidarity action be illegal? Elsewhere in Europe, where labour law conforms to the International Labour Organisation conventions, it is not.
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