The principal changes which it makes in the law may be sum marised as follows :— (I) . Sympathetic strike action (whether on a national or local scale) if designed or calculated to coerce the Government, either directly or by inflicting hardship upon the community, is illegal, provided it is not within the trade or industry in which the original dispute arose. (Section I [I].) (2). Lockouts are also similarly illegal.
(3). All primary strikes not connected with disputes over hours, wages or other conditions of employment are illegal, if they are designed or calculated to coerce the Government either directly or by inflicting hardship upon the community, e.g., a rational coal strike to secure a statutory minimum wage. (Section 1 [1 ].) (4). Any strike declared to be illegal by the Act will be none the less illegal, even though the workmen may have lawfully terminated their contracts of employment by due notice. (Section I [I].) (5). A criminal liability is imposed on all union officials, which would include branch officials, shop stewards, members of strike committees, whether national, district or branch, and all other persons (excepting the workmen themselves) who in any way take part in or act in furtherance of any strike which is made illegal by the Act, even though they may be unaware of the facts or circumstances which render the strike illegal. Moreover, the individual workman who, in additipn to ceasing work, acts as a strike picket or in any other way renders active support will be criminally liable. (Section 1 [2].) (6). In the case of strikes made illegal by the Act, the liability of union funds in respect of damages which may be awarded to employers and others, as imposed in the Taff Vale case, is restored. (Section I [4].) (7). In the case of strikes made illegal by the Act, members expelled by their trade unions for breach of rule, e.g., members who remain at work after a strike has been called in accordance with the rules of the union, are given the right to claim damages, which will be payable out of the union fund. This right is made retrospective so as to cover the 1926 general strike. (Section 2.) (8). The statutory rights of trade unions to use their funds for political purposes are taken away, and the Act gives trade unions little in return which they do not possess under the present law, namely, the right which any group of individuals enjoys voluntarily to subscribe to a common fund. The 1927 Act, therefore, takes away the substantive legal rights conferred on trade unions by the 1913 Act, and, accordingly, is more than a mere change of machinery from "contracting-out" to "contracting in." (Section 4.)
(9). Civil servants are prohibited from joining any trade union which is not confined to employees of the Crown, or which has political objects, or which is affiliated to any outside industrial or political organisations, e.g., the Trades Union Congress or the Labour Party. Any civil servant who fails to observe the above provision is liable to be dismissed from his employment, together with the loss of his pension. (Section 5.) (io). Liability of municipal employees, or employees of any public authority, e.g., Port of London Authority, for breaches of their contracts of employment, to be a criminal as well as a civil liability, and so renders them liable to criminal prosecution, as well as the civil liability to pay damages. (Section 6.) (1 i). The attorney general is given the right to interfere in union affairs by means of an application to the court to restrain the expendi ture of union funds in support of strike action, declared illegal under Section I of this Act. In this connection, it should be noted that under the present law, costs cannot always be obtained against the Crown, even when it loses the action. (Section 7.) Trade Unions and the Community.—The growth of trade unionism has meant that the trade unions have become an integral part of British social machinery. This development has taken two main lines. In the first place, the trade union is now regarded as the normal machinery for the prevention and settlement of dis putes. The State itself regards trade unions as responsible repre sentative bodies. They are called into consultation by the Gov ernment in times of dispute, and their leaders are invariably the spokesmen and advocates of the workers before courts of enquiry set up under the Industrial Courts Act. They express the workers' point of view before royal commissions and Government Com mittees, and the labour members of such investigating bodies are drawn from the ranks of organised labour. On the Whitley coun cils in the Government services, the staff side is conducted by the representatives of the civil service unions. The joint indus trial councils concerned with services in which local authorities are interested are, like all other such councils, composed on the workers' side of trade unionists. The trade unions have won for themselves a definite place in the system of "industrial govern ment," and they are parties to the industrial agreements which govern the relations between employers and employed, lay down the methods of consultation and negotiation, and determine wages and working conditions.