Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Did the Taoiseach and the UK Prime Minister discuss the issue of trade union and workers' rights in both Britain and the North? In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher took a hatchet to workers and the trade union movement and brought in very draconian anti-worker and anti-trade union legislation to tie the hands of workers and limit their ability to take effective action to defend their rights. What is perhaps less well known is that the Northern Assembly has the power to repeal the anti-trade union laws Thatcher brought in but has failed to do so. It is somewhat disappointing Sinn Féin that has not done this. In order to address this deficit, People Before Profit MLA, Gerry Carroll, has brought forward a trade union freedom Bill to try to undo some of the anti-trade union legislation which is being brought into the Assembly. With all the talk of it being payback time for workers after Covid, this is the right time to call for the Thatcherite anti-trade union laws to be repealed in the Assembly. I wonder what the Taoiseach thinks. I hope all parties in the Assembly will support the legislation Gerry Carroll is bringing forward.

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