The government has signalled that it may introduce more stringent rules over strike ballots if the unions proceed, as they intend, with their disruptive day of action at the end of the month. It is certainly true that some of the votes for action were little better than a derisory minority, with percentages in the twenties, of the total membership.
A voting figure of 50% of the membership has been mentioned as a threshold for legality. This blog considers that is not good enough. It may be alright for a referendum or some such for a general public electorate, but a closed electorate of paid members of an organisation established to further a common interest is quite different. Trades Unions come under this heading. For them the demand should be that no strike is legal unless backed in a secret ballot by over 50% of the total membership.
Put simply, if the union leaders cannot get a fraction over half their members to back them, they do not have a mandate for anything. Time for that simple fact to be the law.