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UNIONS must be prepared to break the law and strike if Tory ministers follow through on threats to effectively ban industrial action, bakers’ union national president Ian Hodson said today.
In a rousing speech to BFAWU’s annual conference in Staffordshire, the leftwinger warned that the difference between a worker and a slave is the “right to remove your labour: if you can’t strike, you are no more than a slave.”
The proposed Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill could empower bosses and even ministers to force striking workers to cross their own picket lines and provide an as yet undefined minimum service level in six key industries, including health, transport and education.
The legislation has been widely condemned by unions, employers, MPs and peers from all parties and rights groups in Britain and internationally.
Speaking at Yarnfield Park conference centre in Stone, Mr Hodson told food workers: “The right to strike is enshrined in legislation around the world, and this government want to take it away from us.
“If we are going to be denied our rights to be able to strike legally, then we must be prepared to break the law and strike if we feel we are being mistreated in our workplaces, and the rest of the union movement must be prepared to stand with us.”
The passionate intervention, which was met with a standing ovation, was backed by many delegates, including Mohinder Badhan, who said: “Union rights are human rights: we must stand together.
“Who are they to tell us we can’t strike for our rights? It’s a dictatorship.”
The veteran campaigner was critical of Labour, saying the party “isn’t what it used to be.”
Increasingly right-wing leader Sir Keir Starmer has banned his front bench from standing on picket lines, claiming his regime is about “governing, not protesting.”
Fellow member Doughie Johnston said: “We have one weapon in our arsenal: it is our right and our duty to stand together.”
Referring to a deluge of repressive anti-union laws imposed by a succession of Tory and New Labour administrations since the 1980s, he said: “It’s too long that we have accepted laws which have trampled on unions.
“It is too long that we have accepted draconian legislation to stop us having a voice, to stop us saying we will have decent health and safety, decent wages and be treated with dignity.”
