To think his latest attack on the unions hits a new low?

[Sixweekstowait]

www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/06/public-sector-workers-stopped-automatically-union-subscriptions-pay-cheque

With computerised pay rolls, what is the cost to the employers of the automatic deductions of union fees? Another reason the government puts forward is that it will lead to greater transparency as workers will realise they are paying - ffs. No this is just sheer vindictiveness because public sector unions are still relatively powerful. The lessons of history show a close correlation bewteen attacks on union rights and fascism .

cdtaylornats yes, unions very strong in some large private sector companies too. And those companies continue to prosper and the world hadn't ended. They have good industrial relations too, which means strikes and industrial action of any sort are a rarity. Examples: BAE Systems, various multinationals in the automotive sector, retail (Tesco has a high membership of USDAW).

The uninitiated can read all about unions here: www.tuc.org.uk/britains-unions

This change will make it extremely difficult for unions to organise a strike in a way that meets the letter of the law as rather than get a list of all members from the employer (under check-off) they will need to pull the list together themselves and match employee to workplace. When people move jobs, they often keep their union membership but don't update their details with the union, leading to ballots and other communications going missing. Strikes and industrial action can be successfully legally challenged by employers if the union sends just one ballot paper to someone who is no longer a member of the union or who is no longer employed at the workplace being balloted, even if that person ignores the ballot paper and even if the overall result of the ballot is in favour of industrial action. The action gets annulled on a technicality. This change will make that scenario more likely, hence why this Government are bringing it in.

If the unions offered to pay, then maybe this would go away - try negotiating.
This only affects public sector union members and most remain in the same job type (teachers or nurses) so the issue of invalid ballot papers should not arise. However requiring a union to know its members does not seem much of an ask.

Didwedo- your post is the only one that really made sense to me. After reading the OP it seemed comparable to some businesses suddenly not accepting cheques any more

So what it all boils down to, if I follow it, is that in future the public sector unions are going to have to start chasing people to make sure they complete a direct debit form and also make sure their membership records are accurate and up to date. Why is that a problem?

I think there is potential for this to backfire on the Tories.

If it forces Unions and their members to be a bit more active about Union membership then maybe it will encourage people to value it more and use it to fight for their interests in the workplace.