As a result of the 1926 General Strike, the Conservative Government passed the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act. This legislation outlawed general strikes and sympathetic strikes, and banned civil servants from joining unions affiliated to the Trade Union Congress. This act also hurt the Labour Party by forcing union members to make a positive decision to pay a levy to a political party. Instead of "contracting out" as stipulated by the 1913 Trade Union Act, union members had to "contract in". As a result of this legislation, the Labour Party lost about a third of its subscriptions.