Downing Street Says

» Thursday, May 5, 2011

Strikes

Asked about the Prime Minister’s reaction to the Mayor of London’s accusation that he was being lily-livered’ over strike laws, the PMS referred to PMQs in January when the Prime Minister had been asked if he agreed that any union ballot that led to industrial action should have the majority support of those entitled to vote. The Prime Minister’s reply at the time still applied: a strong case had been made, not least by the Mayor of London, for this sort of change, and we were very happy to look at the arguments for it, in order to make sure we had a fair body of union law in this country. The laws put in place in the 1980s were working well and we did not currently have proposals to amend them, but we were happy to look at this argument as we did not want to see a wave of irresponsible strikes, not least when they were not supported by a majority of people taking part.

Asked if the Prime Minister had looked at the arguments, the PMS said that the Prime Minister was still looking at the arguments but there were no current plans to amend them.

Asked how the Prime Minister would characterise the RMT strike, the PMS said that the Prime Minister condemned the strikes and the disruption that it would bring the people of London. Any strikes needed to be responsible, but ideally the Prime Minister wanted strikes to be resolved and not to happen at all.

Asked how the Prime Minister would define a responsible strike, the PMS said that she was not going to get into semantics, but clearly strikes needed to be responsible. If a strike meant disruption for lots of people then they would have strong views on that.

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Strikes

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