'Anonymous' petition against the Lobbying Bill

Dear Peter,

The controversial Lobbying Bill is steadily moving through the Lords on its way to becoming law, and we're currently being forced to respond to part three, which adds unnecesary and potentially damaging new regulations for trade unions.

One big concern is that the Bill risks the confidentiality of union membership lists - it's potentially a blacklisters' charter. Membership records will be opened to the government's Certification Officer, government nominated Membership Assurers and investigators appointed by employers or political opponents who want to raise a complaint.

Please help by signing our anonymous petition

This is really worrying. Whilst most people are happy to be open about union membership, many will be deeply concerned about bad employers finding out what they had previously had a right to keep a secret.

At a time when the full scope of the blacklisting scandal has still not come to light, giving employers and the government even more access to our sensitive personal data is a shocking development. We just can't trust them with a major change like this.

To dramatise the threat to confidentiality, we want to send a message to Andrew Lansley that thousands of people are concerned they will no longer have the right to keep secret whether or not they are a union member.

We will list all entries in the petition as "Anonymous", mentioning only your job and home town, to make the point that whilst you may have given us your consent to use your data, we don't think government should have this too.

Please sign the anonymous petition now

Thanks for your help in protecting our personal data,
John and the Going To Work team