As for temporary staff, there is a lot of confusion. See The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 Section 7. Which seems to suggest that you cannot bring in temporary staff.

Unite are going to use their funds for the labour party whatever happens. They already have a sophisticated union member voting operation running.
Union legislation, that Tony Blair promised the unions he would repeal, and never touched because it made the country governable again,
was the greatest of Mrs T’s reforms.

LFAT, Any public sector worker who goes on strike should have a reasonable sum – say, £500 – deducted from their next pay cheque and these funds should reinvested into the services that they harmed by walking out, be it Transport for London or their local school or hospital. Has it’s merits but would be seen as an injustice.
Kyle, Allow companies to bring in temporary staff, and even to fire and replace those who strike. As I understand it that is available now but rarely used where it has been it has mixed results.

Tinkering with union rules would just be skating over the problem and methods to overcome restrictions would be devised.

I suggest that it be enshrined in law that any innocent party should be allowed to sue the opposing parties engaged in a strike for damages for financial loss and personal inconvenience, both parties to pay the damages 50/50. That hardly can be seen as unfair and would ensure that most disputes were settled by negotiation.

Alastair, they might be vote winners in the short-term but I don’t think it is wise to get the backs up of union leaders right now, given their supposed £25 million war chest that is waiting to be unleashed against a Conservative government.

Tony E, hard to say without the full details, but I see where you’re coming from.

At present, if a union enters into a ‘no-strike’ agreement, it only need ballot its members in the usual way to break that agreement. There is no legislative framework under which businesses and unions can enter into these situations and either side be able to hold the other to the agreements made. The company gives the union what it wants for the agrement to put in place, but when the union decides it wants more it can tear the agreement up with impunity.

What I inferred from this is that he feels that a Conservative government might enact legislation to set in place a framework of penalties for companies and unions which would help to encourage no strike agreements to be kept. This might include a higher vote threshold for a union to break from an agreement than the normal plain majority, say a 66% vote.

I would agreed with this in days of old in the same way I agree that some armed rebellions are legitimate (you could make a case if Labour win the next election insurrection in Britain would be legitimate to obviate the repression and suffering of the majority by a minority).

However, today with our more sophisticated institutions and acceptance of equality, fairness and justice a more equitable means of resolving industrial disputes could be devised without the disruptive and harmful effects of strikes. In ACAS there is the acorn of an institution that could be better molded to fulfill that ambition. To achieve this unfortunately would need legislation to make strikes illegal but provide for a process that make them unnecessary.