ABSTRACT
Laws governing trade union activities have a long history in the UK. Back in the early part of the nineteenth century, Combination Acts were passed to try to prevent unions from organizing their members, and it was not until 1871 that the position of the unions was clarified by an Act which established that members were not liable to prosecution as part of criminal conspiracies, because unions had previously been defined as being ‘in restraint of trade’. The Act also sought to make unions responsible for their own internal organization, while granting them protection for their funds and allowing them to register as friendly societies. Unfortunately, the contemporaneous Criminal Law Amendment Act made most of the actions of a union in dispute subject to severe penalties, and it was not until 1875 that a new law, the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, permitted peaceful picketing and strike action. Similarly, the 1875 Employers’ and Workman’s Act made breach of contract a purely civil matter.
