COUNCILLOR Don Rishton (Letters, May 27) complains about the Government's proposal that trade unions must gain a 40 per cent 'yes' vote in workplace ballots before they are entitled to recognition.

Many people won't remember, but part of the reason why the country, for 18 years, was a virtual one-party state was that the old-style trade union barons put a gun to the head of the Callaghan government.

It led to the Tories' successive election victories and a change of culture within the Labour movement.

This, I suspect, is a lesson Coun Rishton has conveniently forgotten, despite his protestations on election results and the numbers game.

The Labour leadership has not forgotten this painful lesson and that is why co-operation rather than confrontation is indicated as a benchmark by the proposed 40 per cent rule.

Tony Blair stated months before the General Election that this government would govern for all the people, not just part of it and the union leaders, including John Edmonds and John Monks, the leader of the TUC, agreed with it.

Now, some trade unionists and their support is telling us the goal posts have been moved, when in actual fact they have not.

A single majority condition would mean shop stewards and their deputies having the balance of power on the shop floor instead of the whole workforce having the right to be consulted and that is not democracy, but simply dictatorship.

DUNCAN McVEE, Robin Bank Road, Darwen.

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