Both Conservative leadership candidates have vowed to limit trade unions’ ability to stage industrial actions amid waves of strikes across rail, postal, and other industries over pay.
It comes as members of two trade unions at 14 train operators are about to strike on Wednesday, with further service-crippling rail strikes announced for August.
Liz Truss on Tuesday said it’s “completely wrong” that passengers are “being held ransom by militant unions.”
The foreign secretary said on Monday night that if she becomes the prime minister, she would introduce legislation within 30 days to require a minimum level of service on vital national infrastructure.
Tailored minimum thresholds, including staffing levels, would be determined with each industry.
The minimum threshold for voting in favour of strike action will be raised from 40 percent to 50 percent, and the minimum notice period for strike action would be raised from two weeks to four weeks, Truss said.
A cooling-off period would be implemented so that unions can no longer strike as many times as they like in the six-month period after a ballot, and members would no longer receive tax-free payments from trade unions on the days they are on strike.
Series of Rail Strikes
On June 22, June 24, and June 26, members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) at 14 train operators staged a series of 24-hour strikes over pay, job security, and working conditions.RMT members will strike again on July 27. Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) at Avanti West Coast are walking out on the same day.
Another union, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef), said its members at eight train operators will strike on July 30. The union staged two smaller strikes involving two train operators on July 16 and July 23.
RMT members are set to walk out again next month on Aug. 18 and Aug. 20, with TSSA announcing on Monday that its members at 11 operators are striking on the same days.
Commenting on the TSSA announcement, former Chancellor and Conservative leadership candidate Rishi Sunak said the strikes are “irresponsible” and “will cause hardship for millions of ordinary workers across the country.”
Sunak also criticised Labour and its leader Sir Keir Starmer, saying they “should stand up to their Union paymasters instead of joining them on the picket line.”
Union Boss: Truss’s Proposal ‘Biggest Attack on Trade Union And Civil Rights’
Truss’s proposal was met with fury from RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch, who said they “amount to the biggest attack on trade union and civil rights since labour unions were legalised in 1871.”Lynch accused Truss of effectively outlawing trade unionism and robbing working people of a key democratic right, and threatened “the biggest resistance mounted by the entire trade union movement, rivalling the general strike of 1926, the Suffragettes, and Chartism” if the proposals become law.
Trades Union Congress General Secretary Frances O’Grady said Sunak and Truss “should come up with plans to get wages rising again” instead of “taking potshots at working people and their unions.”
“That’s how to deal with the cost-of-living emergency,” O'Grady said.
Asked about Lynch’s threat, Truss told Sky News on Tuesday that she doesn’t “take any notice of these bellicose threats.”
“We’re facing a global economic crisis. It’s completely irresponsible of the trade unions to call these strikes at the time as we’re seeking to get the economy going. And I will legislate to make sure that those core services are provided to the public,” Truss said.
She said she’s “on the side of people who work hard, who go into work, who want to run their businesses.”
Labour: Conservative Plans ‘Unworkable’
Angela Rayner, Labour deputy leader and shadow secretary of state for the future of work, said Truss was “looking to blame anyone and everyone else other than herself for the mess the Conservatives have made of the last 12 years.”Calling Truss’s proposal “her latest Tory fantasy,” Rayner said her plan is “dangerously out of touch with reality and ignores the stubborn fact that she has sat around the Cabinet table for nearly a decade of pitifully low wage growth, crumbling public services and sleaze at the heart of government.”
“As we saw with the government’s plans to break strikes with agency workers, these plans are unworkable, will only erode working people’s rights further and inflame industrial relations at a critical time,” Rayner said.
Public and private sector workers including postal workers, Barristers, Court security staff, Scottish police officers, British Airway workers, and BT workers are also among those who staged or voted to stage strikes in the last two months.
During the Conservative leadership debate on July 17, all five candidates at the time were united on resisting the unions’ demand, saying there are pay review bodies evaluating the appropriate amount of pay rises.
Candidates said the UK’s current economy can’t sustain what the unions demand and that the government needs to show respect to the unions and win their trust in order to avoid further disruptions.
