Trade Union. The Acts 30 & 31 Vict. cc. 8, 74, provided for facilitating the proceedings of a commission appointed by Queen Victoria to inquire into and report on the organization and rules of trade unions, and other associations of employers and workmen. The (English) Trade Union Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 31), provides:-
S. 2. 'The purposes of any trade union shall not, by reason merely that they are in restraint of trade, be deemed to be unlawful, so as to render any member of such trade union liable to criminal prosecution for conspiracy or otherwise.'
S. 3. 'The purposes of any trade union shall not, by reason merely that they are in restraint of trade, be unlawful so as to render void or voidable any agreement or trust.'
S. 4. 'Nothing in this Act shall enable any court to entertain any legal proceeding instituted with the object of directly enforcing or recovering damages for breach of any of the following agreements, namely,
(1) Any agreement between members of a trade union as such, concerning the conditions on which any members for the time being of such trade union shall or shall not sell their goods, transact business, employ, or be employed:
(2) Any agreement for the payment by any person of any subscription or penalty to a trade union:
(3) Any agreement for the application of the funds of a trade union;-
(a) To provide benefits to members; or
(b) To furnish contributions to any employer or workman not a member of such trade union, in consideration of such employer or workman acting in conformity with the rules or resolutions of such trade union; or
(c) To discharge any fine imposed upon any person by sentence of a Court of justice; or
(4)Any agreement made between one trade union and another; or
(5) Any bond to secure the performance of any of the above-mentioned agreements.
But nothing in this s. shall be deemed to constitute any of the above-mentioned agreements unlawful.'
The Act, which was amended to insurance of children's lives, the membership of minors, the local jurisdiction of justices, and other matters by the Trade Union Act Amendment Act, 1876, provides for the registration of unions by the Registrar of Friendly Societies, but excludes the operation of the Friendly Societies Acts, the Industrial and (English) Provident Societies Acts, and the Companies Acts. By s. 6 of the 1871 Act, any seven or more members may register, but the registration is void if any of the purposes of the union are unlawful. The (English) Act of 1871 was further and very materially amended by the (English) Trade Union Act, 1913, and the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act, 1927. These Acts make further provision as to registration, amend the law as to the objects and powers of a trade union, declare certain strikes and lock-outs illegal, prevent intimidation of workers, restrict and regulate the application of trade union funds for political purposes. The latter Act regulates the membership of trade unions of civil servants.
In the celebrated case of Allen v. Flood, 1898, AC 1, it was held by a majority of six to three in the House of Lords, after consulting eight judges, and reversing the judgment of the Court of Appeal, that no action lay against Mr. Allen (who was the London delegate of the boiler-makers' society) by two dismissed shipwrights for maliciously inducing their employer to dismiss them. The trade union in that case threatened a strike unless workmen who had broken a trade union rule were dismissed, and the employer yielded to the threats; but the House of Lords afterwards held in Quinn v. Leathem 1901, AC 495, that a combination of two or more without justification or excuse to injure a man in his trade by inducing his customers or servants to break their contracts with him or not to deal with him or continue in his employment is, if it results in damage to him, actionable; in this case the employer recovered 250l. from the president, secretary, treasurer, and two members of a trade union registered as the 'Belfast
Journeymen Butchers and Assistants Association.'
It was held in the Taff Vale Railway case that a trade union registered under the Act of 1871 might be sued in its registered name, so as to be liable for the consequences of a strike instigated and regulated by its secretaries, Taff Vale Ry. Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, 1901, AC 426, but the effect of this decision appears to be overriden by the Trade Disputes Act, 1906, s. 4 of which is as follows:
4.-(1) An action against a trade union, whether of workmen or masters, or against any members of officials thereof on behalf of themselves and all other members of the trade union in respect of any tortious act alleged to have been committed by or on behalf of the trade union, shall not be entertained by any Court.
(2) Nothing in this s. shall affect the liability of the trustees of a trade union to be sued in the events provided for by the Trade Union Act, 1871, s. 9, except in respect of any tortious act committed by or on behalf of the union in contemplation or in furtherance of a trade dispute.
The s. is general inits application and is not limited to tortious acts committed in contemplation or furtherance of a trade dispute, Vacher & Sons v. London Society of Compositors, 1913 AC 107, and 'trade union' is not limited to masters and workmen, Hardie v. Chiltern, (1928) 1 KB 663 (motor manufacturers).
See CONSPIRACY; PICKETING; STRIKE; TRADE DISPUTE; MASTER AND SERVANT. Consult Cohen's Trade Union Law.
It means any combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily of the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and employers, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more Trade Unions: Provided that this Act shall not affect-
(i) any agreement between partners as to their own business;
(ii) any agreement between an employer and those employed by him as to such employment; or
(iii) any agreement in consideration of the sale of the goodwill of a business or of instruction in any profession, trade or handicraft. [Trade Unions Act, 1926 (16 of 1926), s. 2 (h)]
S. 2(h) of the Trade Unions Act, 1926 defines trade union as meaning 'any combination, whether temporary or permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between workmen and employers or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and employers, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade or business, and includes any federation of two or more trade unions'. The definition itself sets out the primary purpose for which a trade union can be formed, Commissioner of Income Tax v. Indian Sugar Mills Association, AIR 1975 SC 506: (1975) 3 SCC 479: (1975) 2 SCR 605.
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