
Compulsory Trade Union membership. All ’non’ members must join a trade union by 31st March 1970. The one ‘non’ member is to be informed by the Branch Chairman of his position at on early date.
EXTRACTED FROM THE ORE BRANCH MINUTE
1st MARCH 1970
Hopefully this will give some indication of the ‘confusion’ which surrounded this subject in
The first reference relates to a question of BR’s Closed Shop being ‘in existence’, and was
Hansard states that:
The agreement which led to dismissal was not easy to track down. It was apparently
He continued that ‘… two quotations are given from the agreement, the first is that BRB /
Trade Unions accept that membership of a Trade Union, party to the Machinery of
Negotiation, is in the best interests of employer / employee relationship. With the principle
there asserted I wholeheartedly agree. I have often publicly said that any large industrial
employer would be wise to encourage 100 per cent. trade union membership. I have even
been attacked in a Trade Union Journal for saying that, on the simple dogmatic ground that a
Tory could not possibly mean it. I do mean it, but I emphasise the word encourage, and not
compel’.
The second quotation from the agreement is as follows: ‘It is therefore agreed that
membership of one of the Trade Unions party to the Machinery of Negotiation shall be a
Condition of Employment effective from 1st January 1970.
Being a ‘sad bugger’, I have dug all my Stage II P&E booklets out of the loft and on Page 2
or 3 of the relevant Footplate, and other, booklets it is clear the closed shop was ‘agreed’ on
9th September 1969 with a proposed implementation date of 1st January 1970. Whether this
was actually implemented for existing employees is not clear; due to the fact that BRB were
having to take cognisance of the impending implementation of the Industrial Relations Act
1971, which although in draft form was effectively saying Closed Shops should be illegal.
This was not the end of the saga however, as there was later a case raised in the European
Court of Human Rights during 1976 - it was not heard until August 1981. This was the case
of Young, James & Webster vs. United Kingdom and referred to the dismissal of three BR
employees, as they would not join a Trade Union. The ‘facts were shown to be as follows:
In 1970, British Rail had concluded a closed shop agreement with the NUR, the TSSA and
The matter was, however, revived in July 1975 when British Rail concluded a further
The membership requirement did not apply to "an existing employee who genuinely objects
It appears that, prior to the conclusion of the 1975 Closed Shop Agreement, between 6,000
So according to the Courts, the first ‘official’ BR Closed Shop came into being on 1st August
1975; however, whilst this date is shown on Page 10 of the 1982 ‘Black’ ASLEF Handbook, I
believe it was the case that from January 1970 in some places within the industry the Closed
Shop was in operation. For example, I joined BR on 7th September 1970 and was quickly
told I had to sign an Application Form to join either NUR or TSSA - I joined the latter! From
then on, I was given my Contract of Employment and other documents”.
LOCOMOTIVE JOURNAL
OCTOBER 1946
EDITOR’S NOTES
THE "CLOSED SHOP"