Sympathy strikes

Solidarity action (also known as secondary action, a secondary boycott, or a sympathy strike) is industrial action by a trade union in support of a strike initiated by workers in another, separate enterprise. The term "secondary action" is often used with the intention of distinguishing different types of trade dispute with a worker's direct employer. Thus, it may be used to refer to a dispute with the employer's parent company, its suppliers, financiers, contracting parties, or any other employer in another industry.

In most countries, there are limits on the purposes for which people may go on strike, and in many English-speaking nations, restrictions have been placed against which organizations trade unions may strike.

British and American workers can strike usually only against their direct employer. In Continental Europe, solidarity action is generally lawful, and the right to strike is seen as a part of broader political freedom.

In Australia, secondary boycotts are prohibited by the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. In the 1910s, sympathy strikes were sometimes called to extend a strike beyond the bounds of an Australian state to make it eligible for handling by the Federal Arbitration Court.

In the United Kingdom, sympathy strikes were outlawed by the Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act of 1927 in the aftermath of the general strike. That was repealed by the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1946, passed by the postwar Labour Government.

Solidarity action remained legal until 1980, when the government of Margaret Thatcher passed the Employment Act 1980 to restrict it. That was followed by the Employment Act 1990, which outlawed solidarity action entirely. The laws outlawing solidarity strikes remain to this day.

In 2005, union leaders called for the legalization of solidarity strikes in the aftermath of the strike action against the catering company Gate Gourmet, but Labour ministers stated that they had no intention of repealing the law. British Airways staff walked out in solidarity, however.

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