2y ago

UK union leader’s mass defiance warning over ‘attempt to ban strikes’

www.theguardian.com

21 comments

I'm not sure how they expect to enforce this unless they're planning on holding every striking employee at gunpoint and forcing them to work.
- Union leaders are threatened with prison which cools the strike. That's how it was done when biden broke down rail workers recently.
  Don't under estimate coercive power of the state and that the state is run to protect property of the ruling class.
  All other purposes are secondary.
  
  Bloody hell, with what crime? Convincing your comrades to not work?
- Off the top of my head, if a strike is declared illegal then the workers don't get the usual protections, so the employer is free to retaliate as they see fit (generally dismissal). The state doesn't have to actually do anything.
  
  If they dismissed everyone... I mean follow the logical conclusion there.
- It works with the police. They aren't allowed to strike and therefore never do.
  
  They get everything they want? Why would they strike?
  
  Has there been any instance of that rule being enforced?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
New government anti-strike laws for public sector workers could prompt the start of a campaign of mass defiance not seen since the 1970s, a union leader has warned.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said the minimum service levels legislation passed earlier this year was effectively a ban on strikes, and the biggest attack on the rights of workers since the second world war.
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of a specially convened TUC summit to discuss how to respond to the law, Wrack said a campaign of non-compliance was one of the options under consideration.
The minimum service levels law was passed this year as the government faced a wave of disruptive public sector strikes across health, education and transport.
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, has publicly said he would not issue work notices under the new legislation, while the Labour party has pledged to repeal the law if it wins the next election.
“The FBU and other unions will not accept this attack on working people by this government led by multimillionaires and which ruthlessly serves the interests of the billionaires and bosses.”
The original article contains 731 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 74%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Ontario (the province in Canada) tried this recently.
It did not go well.
What started as a strike amongst education support workers very quickly became preparations for a national strike (basically the pieces were all in place, and and national union leaders politely informed the government of what was coming their way if they didn't back down... They very quickly backed down).

21 comments