09 December 2023 , 17:47
550
0
Unions must back workers who break the Tories’ draconian new anti-strike laws, Unite leader Sharon Graham has warned.
And Ms Graham called on fellow union leaders to commit to acting “outside the law” if necessary in solidarity with workers and other unions sanctioned under the legislation. TUC affiliated Unions today agreed to “refuse to tell our members to cross a picket line” in defiance of the law at an emergency meeting in London.
From this week “minimum service levels” are being enforced for staff including rail staff, ambulance and other emergency service workers. Branded a “stealth ban” on the right to strike, it could mean some workers are never legally allowed to strike, as services are required to provide up to 80% of the normal resources.
Critics argue employers and unions already agree minimum service levels and frequently stand down strikes to deal with “life and limb” emergencies. And say all the law will achieve is increasing tensions between workers and bosses.
Unite recently rewrote its rulebook to allow it to operate in breach of the law when it has no other option.
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
Paul Nowak called the new law "unfair" and "undemocratic" (PA)“You don't want to do that unless it's absolutely necessary,” Ms Graham told this newspaper. “But we believe that this legislation is unlawful. And because it’s unlawful, we believe there are going to be times we will be pushed outside the law.”
The Trades Union Congress agreed to work together to resist the new law, which General Secretary Paul Nowak branded “unfair” and “undemocratic.”
Speaking to the union’s Special Congress in London, the body’s first emergency meeting in decades, Mr Nowak said: "We won't be quiet. We won't be bullied. And we won't be intimidated by this government." He indicated workers should be prepared to defy the law rather than break a strike, saying: “As a young trade union activist, one of the first lessons I learnt was that you don't cross a picket line. And no matter what laws they pass. Or how they threaten us. This movement is not in the business of telling any worker to cross a picket line."
Ms Graham said the new law amounted to the government “declaring war on workers.”
She said: “What I’d like us to commit to is that we work together. Because one of our unions is going to be the first union asked to sign one of these work notices. And when that happens I think all of our unions have got to come together and use all of our brains and our brawn.”
Speaking after the emergency meeting, Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said yesterday’s agreement “fired the starting gun on a campaign of resistance”.
He said: “This new law is an attempt to ban strikes in many sectors of the economy, including the fire and rescue service. The trade union movement cannot passively accept that outcome, and it won’t. Rather than negotiate with frontline workers during a cost of living crisis, the Tories are threatening them with the sack. This is an attack on our basic democratic rights. We cannot rely on judges and politicians to protect us. Workers must defend themselves.
“Crucially, unions have today agreed that they will refuse to tell their members to cross picket lines – a clear act of defiance against the Act. We now need to build a mass movement of resistance and solidarity to break these authoritarian new laws.”