Make the unions pay

Last year the militant trades unionists in the teaching unions decided to take a couple more days off from their busy week and are threatening to do so again. Last year I was fortunate in that I was able to work from home and was able to look after my children and maintain my income. Other parents I know were less fortunate and had to pay for the services of childminders or take unpaid leave. In either case there was a financial loss to the family concerned, not insurmountable for the families I know of but painful and with a knock on effect to the wider economy in general. Once again the Trotskyist Tendency in the teaching unions are calling for more industrial action and once again many parents will be forced to give up a days pay to stay home and look after their children or pay somebody to do it for them. Whilst from an educational perspective these one day strikes are harmful, they are unlikely to ruin an education. Similarly the financial hardship will be merely uncomfortable for most. As always it will be the poorest who are hardest hit, shop and factory workers cannot by definition have the option of working from home or even making up the time another day, they will lose money which can never be made up. The question I have is why should hard working parents be made to suffer just to satisfy the ego trip of a Trades Union baron earning upwards of £150,000 per annum representing an industry with a reported average salary of more than £32,000? I have no doubt that many industrial disputes centre around real grievances, but most in the wider public sector are political in nature with fat cat union leaders seeking to maintain a reason for their continued existence and thereby justify their exorbitant salaries which can be many times more than the earnings of the rank and file membership of the union. I should like to see legislation introduced which would allow those third parties adversely affected by unjustifiable trades union militancy to be able to recover actual financial losses directly from the trades union concerned. In the case of teacher strikes, the cost of emergency childcare or lost wages would be obvious items of claim, but I would feel less comfortable about allowing claims for cinema tickets or meals at Frankie & Benny's, those adversely affected should be under a duty to minimise their loss. Similarly with transport strikes lost wages is an obvious claim but the lost proportion of season tickets should also be allowable. I am sure that other losses would be suffered, the above are not exclusively the only heads of claim, and again these could be claimed for subject to loss being demonstrated. What is important is that these claims should be met quickly and I would suggest a thirty day cap on dealing with claims with the imposition of interest penalties for late payments. There will also need to be an appeal system, I would suggest it be funded by the TUC and have power in making the award to levy costs (up to the cost of the appeal) against frivolous claimants and double damages and full costs against the union trying to avoid its responsibilities.