After a series of defeats and concessions, the Conservative government’s Trade Union Bill has finished its passage through parliament and is now ready to gain royal assent so that it becomes the Trade Union Act 2016 later this month. While the main parts of the Bill remain intact, the initial version of the Bill has undergone alterations since it was presented to parliament in July 2015 following the Conservative Party’s May 2015 general election victory when its contents formed part of its election manifesto.
The concessions and defeats were the result of two processes. First the Trades Union Congress (TUC) worked to create an alliance of disaffected members in the House of Lords, comprising Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and independent peers. These peers put forward amendments to the Bill, which the government then felt compelled to accept because of the second process, namely, the its willingness to offer concessions in exchange for union support in the form of resource mobilization in order to secure a ‘remain’ vote in the Brexit referendum on European Union membership on 23 June 2016.
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