The Trades Union Congress (TUC), representing 5.5 million workers across the UK, has today agreed a strategy to resist the government's Minimum Service Levels legislation.
Hundreds of delegates met at Congress House for the first TUC Special Congress since 1982 and agreed a statement setting out the trade union movement's plan to defeat the new anti-union laws.
Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said:
“Today, the trade union movement fired the starting gun on a campaign of resistance against the Minimum Service Levels Act.
“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.”
ENDS
NOTES
- For more information, please email [email protected] or ring 07964791663 or 07561896809
- The full text of the statement agreed by the TUC Special Congress can be viewed here: https://www.tuc.org.uk/general-council-statement-special-congress-2023?mc_cid=afc6816fff&mc_eid=4f66afb95b
