Thomas v National Union of Mineworkers (South Wales Area)

Subject Matter

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS — Pickets — Attendance at place — Picketing in large numbers outside colliery gates in furtherance of trade dispute — Arrangements made by individual colliery lodges — Picketing outside miners' homes and other buildings — Picketing accompanied by verbal abuse and threats of violence — Interference with right to use public highway — Whether tortious — Whether union vicariously liable for lodges — Whether individual members of trade union entitled to restrain ultra vires actions by union — Whether secondary picketing necessarily tortuous — Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act 1875, s 7 — Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974, ss 13, 15(1) (as amended by Trade Union and Labour Relations (Amendment) Act 1976, s 3(2) and Employment Act 1980, s 16(1)) — Employment Act 1980, ss 16(2), 17

[1986] Ch 20; [1985] 2 WLR 1081; [1985] ICR 886; [1985] 2 All ER 1, Ch D